Presidential elections were held in Iran on June 18, 2021. Ebrahim Raisi won with 62 percent of the votes (17.8 million out of 28.6 million votes).
With all 28.9 million ballots counted, Raisi was elected with a tally of 17.9 million, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said on state TV. Turnout in Friday's four-man race was a record low of around 48.8%.
It was the thirteenth quadrennial presidential election in Iran since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Under the 1979 constitution, Hassan Rouhani, the incumbent president, was ineligible to run for re-election as he was limited to two consecutive terms or eight years in office.
The Guardian Council is responsible for approving candidates who have registered to run. The Guardian Council disqualified over 600 applicants, including all the women who had registered, ultimately approving seven candidates, three of whom withdrew days before the election.
Raisi's main challenger was Abdolnaser Hemmati, Hemmati, 64, served as Iran's central bank chief before he was dismissed in order to run for president.
He reportedly was the only relative moderate left in the race after another moderate candidate quit the race on the last day of the campaign.
Two hard-liners also dropped out of the race on the last day, leaving four candidates for voters to choose from.
Two more hard-liners, Mohsen Rezai, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, who served as parliament's first deputy speaker, remained in the race.
According to IRNA, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli announced on Saturday that Raisi obtained 17,926,345 votes out of the total 28,933,004 ballots, being elected as the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Other candidates Mohsen Rezaei Mirqaed, Abdolnaser Hemmati and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh won 3,412,712 and 2,427,201 and 999,718 votes, respectively, according to the interior minister.
Meanwhile, Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi praised the remarkable participation of Iranians living in the United States in the 13th presidential elections, according to IRNA.
He reportedly said on Saturday that holding presidential elections in Iran and around the world, once again showed the will of the great Iranian nation in determining its own destiny.
In a statement, the diplomat congratulated Ebrahim Raisi for his victory in the presidential elections and thanks his fellow Iranians living in America for turning out in the elections despite the harassment by a small number of ill-wishers of the Iranian people who gathered in front of some polling stations.
The Iranian mission in the United States has reportedly set up twenty nine polling stations across the US in cooperation with the Iranian mission to the United Nations and the Iran Protection Bureau in Washington, and non-governmental organizations in the United States, received Iranian votes.
Slayed Ebrahim Raisol-Sadati (born December 14, 1960), commonly known as Ebrahim Raisi, is an Iranian conservative and principlist politician and Muslim jurist. Raisi has served in several positions in Iran's judicial system, such as Deputy Chief Justice (2004–2014), Attorney General (2014–2016), and Chief Justice (2019–present). He was also Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in the 1980s and 1990s. He was Custodian and Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, a bonyad, from 2016 until 2019. He is also a member of Assembly of Experts from South Khorasan Province, being elected for the first time in the 2006 election. He is the son-in-law of Mashhad Friday prayer leader and Grand Imam of Imam Reza shrine, Ahmad Alamolhoda.
Reuters says Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge who is under U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses.
