Alwaght- The Incumbent Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has won the Islamic Republic's 12th presidential election, securing second successive term in office.
Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli appeared at a press briefing on Saturday to declare Rouhani the winner of the Friday election with 23,549,616 votes, or 57 percent of the total ballots, Press TV reported.
The Iranian interior minister Rahmani Fazli put the turnout at over 73 percent, saying a total of 41,220,131 voters out of 56,410,234 Iranians eligible to vote had cast their ballots on Friday.
The candidate with the second largest number of votes was Sayyed Ebrahim Raeisi, who garnered 15,786,449 votes, or 38.5 percent.
Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi arrives with crowds of supporters to cast his vote during the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, May 19, 2017
Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, the other two candidates, so far received 478,215 and 215,450 votes respectively.
Iran’s 12th presidential election was also simultaneously held for City and Village Councils.
Voting hours were extended several times due to a high turnout in the polls.
Six candidates had been approved after vetting by the Guardian Council to run in the election. In the final days of campaigning, however, two of the candidates, namely First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, withdrew from the race in favor of President Rouhani and Raeisi, respectively.
