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Iranian are voting on Friday in a snap election to pick a successor to former President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash during a helicopter crash last month.

Polls opened at 8 a.m.

Tehran time (0430 GMT) on Friday.

They close at 6:00 p.m.

(1430 GMT), subject to extension by the interior ministry if necessary.

More than 61 million people are eligible to vote, the head of the election headquarters said.

Voting has been underway at 58,640 polling stations across the country, mostly in schools and mosques.

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

A total of 340 polling stations have been also set up in 100 countries to enable the Iranian expatriates to take part in the election.

If there is no clear majority after Friday’s vote, the top two candidates face a second round of voting on July 5.

The winner will serve for four years.

This is not a regularly scheduled election — it wasn't supposed to happen until next year.

But the government called what's known as a snap election in the wake of the May 19 helicopter crash that killed President Ebrahim Raisi, as well as the foreign minister and other officials.

Mohammad Mokhber, who was appointed acting president, is not one of the candidates.

Candidates Iran’s Guardian Council, charged with vetting candidates, had winnowed down a long list of hopefuls to just six candidates.

While there was no clear frontrunner leading up to the vote, two candidates withdrew, leaving four others in the race.

Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same “so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened”.

Ghazizadeh Hashemi is the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs who had served as one of Raisi's vice presidents.

The other is the mayor of the capital Tehran, Alireza Zakani.

On Thursday, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani also withdrew, as he did previously in the 2021 election in which Raisi was voted into office.

Zakani is the mayor of the capital Tehran.

That leaves four remaining candidates.

Iranian presidential candidates
Pictured from left: Saeed Jalili, Masoud Pezeshkian, Mostafa Pourmohammadi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (Photo prepared by National Public Radio – NPR). Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf: The 62-year-old Qalibaf is Iran’s parliament speaker, and former Tehran mayor.

Saeed Jalili: A former nuclear negotiator with strong anti-Western views, the 58-year-old Jalili is a veteran of the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, in which he lost a leg.

Prior to that, he was a member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Masoud Pezeshkian: The lone reformist candidate is also the oldest at age 69.

He is a former Minister of Health and a seasoned lawmaker who has also previously served as the deputy parliament speaker.

Mostafa Pourmohammadi: The 64-year-old is the only cleric running in this election.

He has served in Iran’s Interior and Intelligence Ministries, among other positions.

Original Article Source: Al Manar | Published on Friday, 28 June 2024 13:42 (about 111 days ago)