• Iran to vote, two other candidates withdraw.

    Raisi towards the presidency

  • Iran, Aiea: Tehran has gone 'far beyond the limits' on uranium enrichment

  • Iran, warning to the US on nuclear power: "No advantage from sabotage and sanctions"

  • China and Iran sign a global strategic cooperation program for 25 years

Share

18 June 2021 With the vote of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the polls for the election of the eighth president of the Iranian Islamic republic have officially opened. There are about 60 million voters who will be able to express their preference by Iranian midnight (9.30 pm Italian time) But it is not excluded that the operations may continue for a further two hours. Results are expected tomorrow afternoon.



Three candidates remain in the running, after the withdrawal on the eve of the other 4 admitted by the council of the guardians, all men, out of the almost 600 initial aspirants: The ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi, head of the judiciary, the former commander of the pasdaran, Mohsen Rezai , of the same camp, and the governor of the central bank, the moderate Abdolnaser Hemmati. Abstention could play a role: polls predict it at around 60 percent.



Since then US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal three years earlier in 2018, re-imposing heavy sanctions on Iran, the national currency, the Rial, has plummeted against the dollar and domestic inflation has started to gallop. brakeless. The prices of basic food are rising almost every week, and people are left with very little for the rest. To further precipitate the situation was the covid, which hit Iran more than any other Middle Eastern country, killing over 80,000. The daily infections are still around 10,000. 



Ebrahim Raisi, the ultra-conservative head of the judiciary, early revolutionary and the same age as Khamenei, is given as the favorite in all polls, with about 60 percent of the votes. The others should share the crumbs among themselves, former Pasdaran commander Mohsen Rezai and Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, the only moderate left in contention after the other candidates were excluded from the Guardian Council, a controlled conservative body by the supreme guide.



With the economy on the brink, getting the US back into the nuclear deal and putting an end to sanctions seems the primary goal for ultraconservatives, conservatives or reformists alike. And this seems confirmed by the declarations made a few weeks ago by Raisi that he wants to work for the lifting of the sanctions.