Iran’s judiciary chief Raisi leads the battle for presidency

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Iranian judiciary chief has taken a massive lead over his opponents with 17.8 million votes in the preliminary results from the presidential polls, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Ebrahim Raisi is way ahead of his rivals in the presidential vote, with 28.6 million ballots counted so far. The initial results show he has bagged the highest number of votes so far.

He is trailed by Mohsen Rezaei Mirqaed with 3.3 million votes and Abdolnaser Hemmati and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh with 2.4 million and one million ballots respectively.

With the final outcome yet to be announced, Rezaei, Hemmati and Ghazizadeh have congratulated Raisi on his electoral victory.

Raisi dominated the election after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualified his strongest competitor.

On Friday night, the Associated Press said, the voter turnout appeared far lower than in Iran’s last presidential election in 2017.

However, state TV aired scenes of jam-packed voting booths in several provinces, seeking to portray a last-minute rush to the polls.

PAN Monitor/mud