TEHRAN: Hassan Rohani, the candidate in the Iran’s 11th presidential elections, is in the lead with a wide margin, according to initial results, with Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf coming in second place.
An Iranian Interior Ministry official announced on Saturday that 6,387,317 valid ballots – from a total of 6,598,300 ballots – have been counted at 12,058 polling stations so far (09:30 am Tehran time).
Following are the vote totals from the early results:
Hassan Rohani: 3,219,322
Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf: 1,095,671
Saeed Jalili: 866,301
Mohsen Rezaei: 708,941
Ali Akbar Velayati: 412,941
Mohammad Gharazi: 82,141
On Friday, millions of Iranian voters headed for polling stations to cast their ballots and choose the country’s 11th president as well as their representatives in the city and village councils.
Nearly 50.5 million Iranians, including more than 1.6 million first-time voters, were eligible to vote in the June 14 elections.
If a candidate wins over fifty percent of the vote in the first round of the Iranian presidential election, he will replace incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Otherwise, a run-off will be held in a week’s time to determine a final winner.
Voting was extended by several hours at polling stations across the country as millions of Iranians turned out to cast their ballot in the first presidential race since a disputed 2009 contest led to months of political unrest.
