Iran To Hold Presidential Election Today

Iran is prepared for the presidential election today to pick a successor to its president, who died in a helicopter crash last month. Four candidates are contesting the election, and votes could be tallied as soon as Sunday. Notably, if there is no clear majority after today's vote, the top two candidates will reportedly face a second round of voting on the first Friday after the election result is declared.

The presidential polls will begin at 8:00 am local time and are scheduled to close at 6:00 pm. Initially, there were six contenders. However, two candidates dropped out of the race on Thursday. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili are the remaining prominent candidates. Masoud Pezeshkian, a Reformist member of parliament, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi are also contesting the polls.

Alireza Zakani, the mayor of Tehran, and Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, head of Iran’s main veterans-affairs organization, had earlier announced their withdrawal from the election. Meanwhile, the country is holding elections amid high inflation, heavy Western sanctions, and mounting tensions with the United States.