Hardliner Raisi earns overwhelming victory in Iran’s presidential elections

Tehran, Jun 19 (EFE).- Iran’s ultraconservative chief justice Ebrahim Raisi emerged victorious in the country’s presidential elections, according to the preliminary results revealed on Saturday.

Raisi obtained 62% of 28,600,000 votes that have been counted thus far, the head of the electoral commission, Jamal Orf, announced.

Some 59 million people were eligible to vote in the elections.

Mohsen Rezaee got 3.3 million votes, followed by Abdolnaser Hemmati and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh with 2.4 million and a million votes respectively.

Hemmati, the former governor of the Central Bank and the lone moderate candidate, conceded to Raisi via Instagram.

The new government, which will be brought together in August, will hopefully “improve the situation of the population and create pride for the Islamic Republic,” he said.

The other two candidates, as well as the outgoing president, Hassan Rouhani, have also congratulated Raisi.

“The elections proved once again that the Iranian nation does not hesitate to safeguard and strengthen the Islamic system,” Rezaee said.

Rouhani said: “It is clear who has been chosen by the people (…) We hope that in the next 45 days there will be better for the next government, both in terms of sanctions and coronavirus.” EFE

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