Mohsin Islam, spokesman for the Iranian Interior Ministry’s Election Center, announced that the voting period, which began at 8 a.m. local time and was scheduled to end at 6 p.m., was extended three times and ended at midnight.
The Islamic side said the doors to the polling centres would be closed at midnight and only those who remained inside would continue voting.
Iranian officials announced that the ballot boxes had been opened and the counting of votes would begin.
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The voting period for the presidential election was extended first until 8 p.m., then 10 p.m., and then until midnight, lasting a total of 18 hours.
The reformist candidate Massoud Pezhekyan, conservative candidates Muhammed Baqir Qalibaf, Speaker of Parliament, former Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for National Security Said Jalili, and former Minister of the Interior Mustafa Pourmuhamedi are competing in the election.
Conservative candidates Tehran Mayor Ali Reza Zakhani and Emir Hossein Khadizadeh-Hashimi withdrew their candidacy hours before the election “to ensure conservative unity.”
A candidate must receive 50 + 1 percent of the vote to be elected in the first round.
If no candidate receives more than 50+1% of the votes in the first round, the two candidates with the most votes will proceed to a second round, and the winner of the second round, which will be held on July 5th, will become the 9th President of the country.
First results
In the 14th Iranian presidential election, Massoud Pezhekyan came in first with 42.3% of the vote, followed by Saeed Jalili with 39.5%.
Mohsin Islam, spokesman for the Iranian Interior Ministry’s Election Center, announced that 14,007,642 votes had been counted since the ballot boxes were opened at midnight.
Looking at the distribution of votes, Pezheshkyan came in first with 5,955,781 votes, or 42.3%.
He is followed by Chelily, who has received 5,563,210 votes so far, with 39.5%.
Muhammad Bakr Qalibaf came in third with 13.4% of the vote, while Mustafa Pourmuhamedi came in fourth with 0.8%.
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