Ebrahim Raeisi wins Iran’s presidential vote by comfortable margin
Yusef Jalali
Press TV, Tehran
The short but intense presidential race in Iran came to an end on Saturday, with principlist flag bearer Ebrahim Raeisi announced as the next president.
Out of a total of 30 mn votes cast in the election, Raeisi secured more than 18 mn votes, to win the election by a comfortable margin against his reformist rival, Abdolnaser Hemmati, who stood third in the race with less than 4 mn votes.
President-elect Raeisi was the chief of Iran’s Judiciary from 2019 until he won the election. The Muslim cleric ran with the slogan of Popular Administration, Strong Iran, with a focus on uprooting corruption in the executive branch, fighting poverty, creating jobs, containing inflation and housing prices.
President-elect Raeisi will take over power from outgoing president Hassan Rouhani with a host of unresolved issues; on top of them is an economy affected by the US sanctions that's in large part tied to the fate of the 2015 nuclear deal.
On the campaign trail, Raeisi stood out as an outspoken critic of Rouhani's policies. He believed that the ultimate cure for the economy must be explored inside the country.
Some 60 million Iranians were eligible to vote in this year's election. The interior ministry put the final voter turnout at x-percent. The polls opened an hour earlier at 7am on Friday and voting was extended several times until 2am on Saturday both to accommodate the flow of voters and to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Ebrahim Raeisi has promised to recover economy and to strengthen it in face of sanctions. Now it's up to him to make good on his promises and bring about the economic change that every Iranian is now hoping for.
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