Iranian voters will go to the polls today, Friday, to choose a new president for the country to succeed the current President Hassan Rouhani, who called on voters to put aside differences and vote extensively.
After the withdrawal of 3 candidates, 4 candidates from the conservative and moderate currents are competing in the elections: Ibrahim Raisi, Abdel Nasser Hemmati, Mohsen Rezaei, and Qazizadeh Hashemi.
Yesterday, Thursday, Iran entered electoral silence after the end of the propaganda campaigns that extended for 3 weeks, and these elections come in light of an economic and social crisis caused mainly by US sanctions, and exacerbated by the Corona pandemic.
About 59 million voters are entitled to participate, but a few opinion polls conducted in Iran and local media expected the participation rate to be around 40%.
Invitations to vote
For his part, President Rouhani urged Iranians to participate in the presidential elections, and said that "Iran's enemies" want the turnout to be low, calling on Iranians not to allow this to happen.
He added, "If we have criticisms, we must put them aside now, and focus on participation. The failure of a certain party to perform its work as required should not prevent us from participating in the elections."
Prior to that, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged voters to turn out in large numbers to vote, and said that “a show of force in this way will ease external pressures on the Islamic Republic,” and indicated that lower turnout means increased pressure on the country, especially economic.