Iran: Polling Underway As Thousands Wait For Raisi’s Successor

The Islamic Republic of Iran, on Friday, commenced voting in its Presidential elections. A total of 61,452,321 people are eligible to vote both inside and outside the country, as per the Interior Ministry of the country. According to the latest poll by the Parliamentary Research Centre, cited by the state-linked Tasnim news website, projected voter turnout has been gradually increasing in recent days but remains at 48.6 per cent, potentially marking a new low.

Voting in Iran opened at 8 am (local time) and will continue till 6 pm. As per Al Jazeera, the voting can stretch for multiple two-hour periods until midnight. The Middle-Eastern country is holding polls to elect the country’s next President after Ebrahim Raisi, along with Iran’s Foreign Minister, died in a helicopter crash in the mountains near Azerbaijan last month.

What do the exit polls say?

Masoud Pezeshkian is projected to lead with nearly 30 per cent of the vote, followed by Saeed Jalili and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf with 18.8 per cent and 16.8 per cent, respectively. Mostafa Pourmohammadi is at the bottom with six per cent. Notably, a recent survey also projected that approximately 24 per cent of voters were still undecided, giving them significant influence to sway the election results.