Iran’s ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi elected president

Iran’s ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected president with just under 62% of the vote, according to figures released Saturday by Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli.

Voter turnout for Friday’s election was 48.8% of the more than 59 million eligible voters, he said – a record low for a presidential election in the Islamic republic.

In second place by a wide margin was the ultraconservative Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who won 11.8%.

He was followed in third place by the only reformist left in the race, former central bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati, who scored 8.4%.

Last placed out of the four candidates was another ultraconservative, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi, who won 3.5%.

Over 3.7 million ballots were declared void – more votes than were won by second-placed Rezai.

Three of the original seven candidates had dropped out two days before the election – reformist Mohsen Mehralizadeh and ultraconservatives Saeed Jalili and Alireza Zakani.

AFP