Presidential Runoff in Iran Extended for 2 Hours
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Elections Headquarters of Iran issued a statement on Friday afternoon, declaring that the ongoing presidential runoff election will be extended for two more hours beyond the initial time limit.
Polling stations opened at 8 am on Friday morning and were scheduled to close at 6 pm.
The high turnout of people in the polls convinced the Interior Ministry to extend the voting hours until 8 pm across the nation.
The voting time is expected to be extended again.
In the first round of election on June 28, the voting was extended four times until midnight.
Over 61 million Iranians are eligible to cast their ballots at around 59,000 polling stations across the country.
Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, the two candidates with the highest number of votes, are facing off in the showdown.
A total of 24,535,185 votes were cast in the last week’s polls, translating into a turnout of 39.92%.
The election takes place a year ahead of schedule, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi passed away in May.
A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on May 19, killing the president, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and six others.