Politics

Hardliner Raisi elected Iran’s president with 62 per cent of votes

(Update 1: Adds the official results)

Tehran, Jun 19 (EFE).- Iran’s ultraconservative chief justice Ebrahim Raisi has won the presidential elections with nearly 18 million votes, the Interior Ministry announced on Saturday.

Raisi obtained 61.96 per cent of 28,933.004 votes, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli said at a press conference.

Some 59 million people were eligible to vote in the elections, meaning that the turnout stood at 48.8 per cent, the lowest of all the presidential elections held in the Islamic Republic.

Mohsen Rezaee got 3.4 million votes, followed by Abdolnaser Hemmati and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh with 2.4 million and a million votes respectively.

The rest of the votes (over 3.7 million) were invalid, the minister said.

Before the official results were announced, the three candidates conceded to Raisi, who is sanctioned by the United States.

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

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

Congratulations also poured from outgoing president Hassan Rouhani, the Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Iraqi counterpart Barham Saleh among others. EFE

mv-ar/ta

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