Following the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, polls for Iran’s presidential election started on Friday.
Masoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old reformist, is hoping for a historic victory against a split conservative camp in the polls, which are expected to draw in about 61 million Iranian voters.
He was permitted to run against a field of conservatives led by former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf by the Guardian Council, which screens candidates.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a cleric, is still in the running after two ultraconservatives with strong Tehran ties, Alireza Zakani and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Raisi’s former vice president, withdrew.
“We start the elections” for the country’s 14th presidential ballot, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a televised address.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his ballot shortly after the polls opened and urged Iranians to vote.
“Election day is a day of joy and happiness for us Iranians,” he said in a televised speech where he also called for a high turnout.
“We encourage our dear people to take the issue of voting seriously and participate,” he said.
As the Gaza War rages on, there are intense regional tensions between the Islamic republic and its arch-foes, Israel and the United States, coinciding with the election in sanctions-hit Iran.
At 8:00 am (0430 GMT), polls were open in 58,640 locations nationwide, the majority of which were schools and mosques.
Though officials may decide to extend voting hours, as they have in past elections, polling places will be open for ten hours.
Official results are anticipated on Sunday, with preliminary projections due by Saturday morning.
For the first time in Iranian electoral history, a runoff vote was required in 2005; if no candidate receives 50% of the vote, there will be a second round on July 5.
After years of domination by the conservative and ultraconservative factions, Pezeshkian’s candidacy has rekindled cautious optimism for Iran’s reformist wing. Pezeshkian was a relative unknown until recently.
He was described as “honest, fair, and caring” by Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s former reformist president.
The moderate Hassan Rouhani won the presidency in 2015 and finalized Iran’s nuclear deal with Western powers before it was reneged on three years later. Khatami, who ruled from 1997 to 2005, had also endorsed Rouhani.
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