Voting Hours Likely to Be Extended: Iranian Official
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The head of the Iranian Interior Ministry’s State Elections Committee said voting hours of the country’s ongoing elections will most likely be extended.
Voting hours may be extended as the country has seen in previous elections and due to people’s high turnout in the polls, Ali Asghar Ahmadi said on Friday.
He further thanked the Iranian nation for casting their ballots in the early hours of Friday, calling on people not to vote in the closing hours of the polls.
Iran is simultaneously holding the 12th presidential election, the 5th City and Village Councils elections, and the Parliament’s midterm election.
Polling stations across Iran opened on Friday morning for the elections. 63,429 polling stations across Iran opened at 8 am local time on Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli’s order. Around 14,000 mobile ballot boxes have been also prepared for inaccessible and rural areas.
There are four candidates seeking presidency in the polls, including incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, Mostafa Hashemitaba, and Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim.
The Iranian official also said that the candidates could visit the place where the elections monitoring committee is stationed at any time.
A run-off would be held a week later if none of the candidates wins a majority, which is at least 50 percent plus one vote.