Iran presidential polls: Ebrahim Raisi takes an unassailable lead in election count

The 60-year old Raisi, conservative head of the judiciary, secured more than 17.8 million out of the 28.6 million votes that have been counted, the interior ministry said based on preliminary results.

There are a total of four candidates contesting for elections out of which three have conceded defeat to Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei who was widely seen as the frontrunner in Friday’s election marred by low turnout and the disqualification of many candidates.

Mohsen Rezaei, Abdolnaser Hemmati and Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi received more than 3.3 million votes, 2.4 million and 1 million votes respectively.

The new president will take charge in August.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has also casted vote early on Friday morning in Tehran and encouraged people to go the polls.

"Each vote counts ... come and vote and choose your president. This is important for the future of your country,” he said.

About the candidates of presidential elections:

Ebrahim Raisi has worked as a prosecutor for most of his career. He served as a judiciary chief in 2019, two years after he lost by a landslide to Mr Rouhani in the last election.

Abdolnasser Hemmati is a technocrat and was appointed the governor of the Central Bank of Iran in 2018. He was dismissed from the position after becoming a candidate.

Mohsen Rezai served as the commander of the powerful Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. He has been nominated as a presidential candidate thrice.

Amirhossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, the youngest of all, is an ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon who has served as an MP since 2008 and first deputy speaker since this May.