ALBAWABA - The turnout was high in the Iranian presidential election, which prompted a move by officials to extend the voting hours up to 10 pm local time, rather than the earlier planned 6 pm.
Polling stations were particularly crowded in the capital, Tehran. Former parliament speaker Ali Motahari highlighted that any election conducted is an expression of the people's trust in the political system and management of any country.
The voting began at 8 AM local time and was supposed to be closed by 6 PM, but the turnout was such that it created a record, which perturbed the concerned authorities into allowing the vote until 10 PM.
One spokesman for an election committee within the Iranian Interior Ministry has described that the polls shall now remain open till 8 PM local time. Out of 88 million, an estimated 62 million Iranians are eligible to vote. Voting is taking place at over 59,000 centers countrywide.
Critical candidates in the election are reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and conservatives Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Saeed Jalili, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi.
Initial results are expected shortly before midnight, but with the entire counting process, it could be as late as Saturday. A candidate needs over 50% to win. Otherwise, the two highest polling candidates will go to a run-off on July 5 to decide who will become Iran's ninth president.
They were followed by the death of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, as well as their delegation, in a helicopter crash on May 19 while returning from an inauguration at the border dam with Azerbaijan.
