Iranians go to polls to vote for new president

TEHERAN — Voting for Iran's 14th presidential election started at 8 am on Friday, as Iranians choose their new leader following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

In a televised address, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced the start of the elections.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast the first ballot at a polling station, and later made a brief speech calling for the unity of the Iranian people during the election.

"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."

Initially set for 2025, Iran's 14th presidential election was rescheduled following Raisi's unexpected death.

Six candidates had qualified to enter the race. They were Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, current vice-president; Alireza Zakani, mayor of Teheran; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliamentary speaker; Saeed Jalili, former chief negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, former interior minister and justice minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, former health minister.

Later, Hashemi and Zakani withdrew from the race in favor of Qalibaf and Jalili.

The voting will be held at close to 59,000 polling stations in more than 95 states. Over 61 million people over the age of 18 are eligible to vote in the election, according to authorities, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30.

Early projections of the results are expected by Saturday morning and official results by Sunday.

Iranian law requires that the winner gets more than 50 percent of all votes cast. If that does not happen, the race's top two candidates will advance into a runoff a week later.

Xinhua - Agencies