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 supposed to end at 6 p.m., was extended three times and ended at midnight. Islam said the doors of the election center were closed at midnight and only those who remained inside would continue voting. Iranian officials announced that the ballot boxes would be opened and the vote counting would begin. The voting period for the presidential election was extended first to 8 p.m., then to 10 p.m., and again to midnight, for a total of 18 hours.
To be elected in the first round, a candidate needs 50 percent + 1 vote.
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.
The first data on the election results was released late at night, with final results due to be announced just before noon today.
The first results have arrived
According to the Iranian Ministry of Interior’s Election Center, 1,258,843 votes have been counted so far.
Looking at the distribution of votes, Pezheshkyan came in first with 5,000,354 votes, followed by Chelily with 4,000,875,269 votes.
Muhammad Bakr Qalibaf came in third with 1,620,628 votes, while Mustafa Pourmuhamedi came in fourth with 95,172 votes.
