Tehran, May 19, 2017: Ebrahim Raisi, the leading rival to President Hassan Rouhani in Friday's presidential election, is a hardline judge with close ties to the supreme leader who spent years in powerful backroom positions. Born into a religious family in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Mashhad on August 23, 1960, Raisi wears the black turban of a "seyed" whose genealogy is said to lead back to Prophet Mohammed.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Egypt Today. </s> Supporters of the two leading candidates in Iran’s presidential election took to the streets as official campaigning came to an end.

But despite festive scenes ahead of Friday’s vote, there has been tension between the moderate and reformist forces and hardline fundamentalists with fiery exchanges.

It has turned into a tight race between incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, described as a pragmatist, and the hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

One young woman in Tehran told Euronews: “We’ve gone forward with hope and we think moderation is the best thing.

“We want it to happen. We want our candidate to win. We want to have hope.”

One young man said: “I’m holding both photos (Rouhani and Raisi) to say we’re all Iranians, that unity matters and no matter who we choose the important thing is to vote and choose by logic.”

As the campaigning came to an end there was an intervention by the country’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday.

He slammed the heated tone of the election campaign, describing it as “unworthy”.

Some observers read that as a thinly veiled attack on President Rouhani and his attacks on Raisi. </s> The report says President Hassan Rouhani has an unbeatable lead in Iran’s presidential election and is set to defeat his hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi. Photo: AFP

Dubai/Beirut: President Hassan Rouhani has an unbeatable lead in Iran’s presidential election, an Iranian official source told Reuters on Saturday, citing an early unofficial tally, and is set to defeat his hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi and win a second term.

In a briefing for reporters, interior ministry official Ali Asghar Ahmadi outlined a similar proportion of votes received.

“It’s over, Rouhani is the winner,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The pragmatist Rouhani won 21.6 million votes in Friday’s hard-fought contest, compared to 14 million for Raisi, with 37 million votes counted, the source said, adding about four million more votes were still to be tallied.

The interior ministry official said that with 25 million ballots certified by the authorities so far, Rouhani won 14.619 million and Raisi gained 10.125 million.

He said 40 million votes had been cast, indicating a turnout of about 70%, roughly similar to the showing in 2013 elections when Rouhani swept into office in a landslide victory

Ahmadi said final results would be announced later on Saturday.

The big turnout appeared to have favoured Rouhani, whose backers’ main worry has been apathy among reformist-leaning voters disappointed with the slow pace of change.

Rouhani, 68, who took office promising to open Iran to the world and give its citizens more freedom at home, faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from Raisi, a protege of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

The election is important “for Iran’s future role in the region and the world”, Rouhani, who struck a deal with world powers two years ago to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most economic sanctions, said after voting.

Raisi, 56, has accused Rouhani of mismanaging the economy and has travelled to poor areas, speaking at rallies pledging more welfare benefits and jobs.

He is believed to have the backing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards security force, as well as the tacit support of Khamenei, whose powers outrank those of the elected president but who normally steers clear of day-to-day politics.

“I respect the outcome of the vote of the people and the result will be respected by me and all the people,” Raisi said after voting, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

However, Raisi later appeared at the Ministry of Interior in Tehran on Friday and complained of a shortage of ballot sheets at many polling stations, according to Fars. More ballot sheets were subsequently sent out, the agency reported.

The Guards and other hardliners had hoped that a win for Raisi would have given them an opportunity to safeguard economic and political power they see as jeopardised by the lifting of sanctions and opening of the country to foreign investment.

During weeks of campaigning, the two main candidates exchanged accusations of corruption and brutality in unprecedentedly hostile television debates. Both deny the other’s accusations.

Rouhani has urged the Guards not to meddle in the vote, a warning that reflects the political tension. Suspicions that the Guards and the Basij militia under their control falsified voting results in favour of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to eight months of nationwide protests in 2009, which were violently suppressed.

For ordinary Iranians, the election presents a stark choice between competing visions of the country.

Rouhani, known for decades as a mild-mannered establishment insider rather than a gung-ho reformer, has taken on the mantle of the reform camp in recent weeks, with fiery campaign speeches that attacked the human rights records of his opponents.

“I voted for Rouhani to prevent Raisi’s victory. I don’t want a hardliner to be my president,” said Ziba Ghomeyshi in Tehran. “I waited in the line for five hours to cast my vote.”

Many pro-reform voters are still lukewarm Rouhani supporters, disappointed with his failure to make broader changes during his first term. But they were anxious to keep out Raisi, who they see as representing the security state at its most fearsome: in the 1980s he was one of four judges who sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death.

“I like his (Rouhani) detente policy with the world. I know he is not a reformist, but who cares? What matters is that he is not Raisi,” employee Yousef Ghaemi, 43, said by phone in the western city of Kermanshah.

For conservatives, the election represented a chance to restore the values of the 1979 revolution, which requires elected officials to be subordinate to the Shi’ite Muslim clergy and supreme leader.

“I voted for Raisi because he is a follower of Imam Khamenei. He will not confront the leader if elected. He will protect our Islamic identity,” said Mehran Fardoust, 36, a shopkeeper near the Imam Reza Shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi’s home town.

Despite the removal of nuclear-related sanctions in 2016, lingering unilateral US sanctions that target Iran’s record on human rights and terrorism have kept foreign companies wary of investing, limiting the economic benefits so far.

Raisi has focused his campaign on the economy, visiting rural areas and villages and promising housing, jobs and more welfare benefits, a message which could have resonated with millions of poor voters angry at the Tehran elite. Reuters </s> Hassan Rouhani, Iran’s moderate president who is seeking re-election, faces a boisterous race after heavyweight conservative figures critical of his landmark nuclear agreement with the west put themselves up to challenge him.

Registration for candidates in Iran’s presidential elections next month ended on Saturday, with a record number of 1,636 people putting their names on the list, including 137 women. On Friday, Rouhani took his ID card, a few passport-sized photos and other paperwork to the interior ministry in Tehran’s Fatemi Street to register to run for a second term. His four predecessors have all served two conservative terms.

Ebrahim Raisi, a close ally of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose bid for presidency has upended the race, also registered on Friday. The former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tehran’s mayor, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, are among a handful of other serious candidates running.

The list of presidential hopefuls has been sent to the guardian council, a powerful body of jurists and clerics, which began a five-day vetting process on Sunday. A limited number of candidates are usually allowed through. Critics say the council has arbitrarily blocked many high-profile politicians in recent years, going beyond its constitutional responsibilities.

This year, all eyes are on the council to see if it will approve Ahmadinejad, who registered despite advice by Khamenei not to. The campaign period starts on 28 April and ends one day before the vote, which is scheduled for 19 May.

Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian history at the University of St Andrews, said Raisi’s surprising decision to run has been “the fly in the ointment” in what could have been a relatively straightforward, albeit challenging, race for Rouhani to win a second term. Raisi’s rise to prominence over the past year has intrigued many commentators who speculate that he is being touted as a frontrunner to succeed Khamenei, a higher position than that of the president.

“I think definitely it has complicated the race,” Ansari said. “I think the fact that Raisi is coming, unless he steps aside, it looks very unlikely to me that the nezam [ruling system] would allow Raisi to be humiliated in an election. He hasn’t come to lose. He is an up-and-coming player in the system and in the last six months he’s basically come from nowhere.”

There are also concerns about Rouhani’s possible disqualification. That explains why his first deputy, Eshaq Jahangiri, a figure close to the reformists, also registered to run on Saturday. “I’m here to supplement Rouhani,” he said, meaning that his bid for the presidency was tactical and that he would drop out if Rouhani is allowed to run.

“Rouhani is not in as strong a position as we think he is, because he delivered the JCPOA [nuclear deal]. JCPOA in Iran is not seen as a giant triumph, and for me the problem for me is the way Rouhani sold it,” Ansari said. 



“He has stablised the economy, but I think he made a number of very exaggerated claims, and he is now paying the price in the popular mood. But in an open election I think people would vote for Rouhani . Rouhani is the best of a bad choice, but at the same time I don’t think he’s as clear a winner as some people in the west would like to think.”

Although women have registered, all female nominees have previously been blocked from running. Azam Talaghani, a former MP and the daughter of a prominent revolutionary ayatollah, is among the women who have put their names on the list to test whether the authorities would allow women to run. </s> DUBAI: Millions of Iranians joined long queues to vote on Friday, an early sign of strong turnout in an unexpectedly tight presidential election that could determine the future of the country's nascent emergence from international isolation.

The presidential vote pits incumbent Hassan Rouhani, who wants to normalise ties with the West, against a hardline judge who says Rouhani has gone too far and sold out the values of Iran's Islamic revolution to its enemies.

Rouhani, who struck a deal with world powers two years ago to curb Iran's nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most economic sanctions, said the election was important "for Iran's future role in the region and the world".

"Whoever wins the election, we should help him to fulfil this important and serious duty," state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying after voting.

Rouhani, 68, who swept into office four years ago promising to open Iran to the world and give its citizens more freedom at home, faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Raisi has blamed Rouhani for mismanaging the economy and has travelled to poor areas holding rallies, pledging more welfare benefits and jobs.

He is believed to have the backing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards security force, as well as the tacit support of Khamenei, whose powers outrank those of the elected president but who normally steers clear of day-to-day politics.

"I respect the outcome of the vote of the people and the result will be respected by me and all the people," Raisi said after voting, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

In the last election, Rouhani won more than three times as many votes as his closest challenger. But this time the outcome promises to be much closer, as other conservative rivals have backed out and thrown their support behind Raisi.

The Guards and other hardliners hope that a win for Raisi, 56, will give them an opportunity to safeguard economic and political power they see as jeopardised by the lifting of sanctions and opening to foreign investment.

During weeks of campaigning the two main candidates exchanged accusations of graft and brutality in unprecedentedly hostile television debates. Both deny the other's accusations.

Some 350,000 members of the security forces were deployed around the country to protect the election, state television reported. The interior ministry said at mid-day that it had no reports of electoral offences so far, state television reported.

Rouhani has urged the Guards not to meddle in the vote, a warning that reflects the political tension. Suspicions that the Guards and the Basij militia under their control falsified voting results in favour of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to eight months of nationwide protests in 2009, which were violently suppressed.

For ordinary Iranians, the election presents a stark choice between competing visions of the country.

Rouhani, known for decades as a mild-mannered establishment insider rather than a gung-ho reformer, has taken on the mantle of the reform camp in recent weeks, with fiery campaign speeches that attacked the human rights records of his opponents.

Many pro-reform voters are still lukewarm Rouhani supporters, disappointed with the slow pace of change during his first term. But they are anxious to keep out Raisi, who they see as representing the security state at its most fearsome: in the 1980s he was one of four judges who sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death.

"I am on my way to vote for Rouhani. I like his detente policy with the world. I know he is not a reformist, but who cares? What matters is that he is not Raisi," government employee Yousef Ghaemi, 43, said by phone in the western city of Kermanshah.

For conservatives, the election represents a chance to restore the values of the 1979 revolution, which requires elected officials to be subordinate to the Shi'ite Muslim clergy and supreme leader.

"I cast my vote already - I voted for Raisi because he is a follower of Imam Khamenei. He will not confront the leader if elected. He will protect our Islamic identity," said Mehran Fardoust, 36, a shop keeper near the Imam Reza Shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi's home town.

In public, Khamenei has remained neutral, repeatedly calling for a high turnout. But Iranians in both political camps suspect he is in fact backing his protege Raisi - not only for the presidency but potentially also as a possible successor to his own post of supreme leader, which the 77-year-old hardline cleric has held since 1989.

Despite the removal of nuclear-related sanctions in 2016, lingering unilateral U.S. sanctions that target Iran's record on human rights and terrorism have kept foreign companies wary of investing in Iran, limiting the economic benefits so far.

Raisi has focused his campaign on the economy, visiting rural areas and villages and promising housing, jobs and more welfare benefits, a message which could resonate with millions of poor voters angry at the Tehran elite.

Two other conservative candidates are still officially in the race. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two, presumably Rouhani and Raisi, would face each other a second time in a run-off in a week.

Polls close at 6 p.m. (1330 GMT), although authorities often extend voting into the evening. Ballot counting will start at midnight and final results are expected within 24 hours of polls closing, TV reported. The elections are also for city and village councils. </s> Millions of Iranians joined long queues to vote on Friday, an early sign of strong turnout in an unexpectedly tight presidential election that could determine the future of the country’s nascent emergence from international isolation.

The presidential vote pits incumbent Hassan Rouhani, who wants to normalize ties with the West, against a hardline judge who says Rouhani has gone too far and sold out the values of Iran’s Islamic revolution to its enemies.

Rouhani, who struck a deal with world powers two years ago to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of most economic sanctions, said the election was important “for Iran’s future role in the region and the world.”

“Whoever wins the election, we should help him to fulfill this important and serious duty,” state news agency IRNA quoted him as saying after voting.

Rouhani, 68, who swept into office four years ago promising to open Iran to the world and give its citizens more freedom at home, faces an unexpectedly strong challenge from Ebrahim Raisi, a protege of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Raisi has blamed Rouhani for mismanaging the economy and has traveled to poor areas holding rallies, pledging more welfare benefits and jobs.

He is believed to have the backing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards security force, as well as the tacit support of Khamenei, whose powers outrank those of the elected president but who normally steers clear of day-to-day politics.

“I respect the outcome of the vote of the people and the result will be respected by me and all the people,” Raisi said after voting, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

In the last election, Rouhani won more than three times as many votes as his closest challenger. But this time the outcome promises to be much closer, as other conservative rivals have backed out and thrown their support behind Raisi.

The Guards and other hardliners hope that a win for Raisi, 56, will give them an opportunity to safeguard economic and political power they see as jeopardized by the lifting of sanctions and opening to foreign investment.

During weeks of campaigning the two main candidates exchanged accusations of graft and brutality in unprecedentedly hostile television debates. Both deny the other’s accusations.

Some 350,000 members of the security forces were deployed around the country to protect the election, state television reported. The interior ministry said at mid-day that it had no reports of electoral offenses so far, state television reported.

Rouhani has urged the Guards not to meddle in the vote, a warning that reflects the political tension. Suspicions that the Guards and the Basij militia under their control falsified voting results in favor of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to eight months of nationwide protests in 2009, which were violently suppressed.

For ordinary Iranians, the election presents a stark choice between competing visions of the country.

Rouhani, known for decades as a mild-mannered establishment insider rather than a gung-ho reformer, has taken on the mantle of the reform camp in recent weeks, with fiery campaign speeches that attacked the human rights records of his opponents.

Many pro-reform voters are still lukewarm Rouhani supporters, disappointed with the slow pace of change during his first term. But they are anxious to keep out Raisi, who they see as representing the security state at its most fearsome: in the 1980s he was one of four judges who sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death.

“I am on my way to vote for Rouhani. I like his detente policy with the world. I know he is not a reformist, but who cares? What matters is that he is not Raisi,” government employee Yousef Ghaemi, 43, said by phone in the western city of Kermanshah.

For conservatives, the election represents a chance to restore the values of the 1979 revolution, which requires elected officials to be subordinate to the Shi’ite Muslim clergy and supreme leader.

“I cast my vote already - I voted for Raisi because he is a follower of Imam Khamenei. He will not confront the leader if elected. He will protect our Islamic identity,” said Mehran Fardoust, 36, a shop keeper near the Imam Reza Shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi’s home town.

In public, Khamenei has remained neutral, repeatedly calling for a high turnout. But Iranians in both political camps suspect he is in fact backing his protege Raisi -- not only for the presidency but potentially also as a possible successor to his own post of supreme leader, which the 77-year-old hardline cleric has held since 1989.

Despite the removal of nuclear-related sanctions in 2016, lingering unilateral U.S. sanctions that target Iran’s record on human rights and terrorism have kept foreign companies wary of investing in Iran, limiting the economic benefits so far.

Raisi has focused his campaign on the economy, visiting rural areas and villages and promising housing, jobs and more welfare benefits, a message which could resonate with millions of poor voters angry at the Tehran elite.

Two other conservative candidates are still officially in the race. If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two, presumably Rouhani and Raisi, would face each other a second time in a run-off in a week.

Polls close at 6 p.m. (1330 GMT), although authorities often extend voting into the evening. Ballot counting will start at midnight and final results are expected within 24 hours of polls closing, TV reported. The elections are also for city and village councils. </s> Iran says incumbent President Hassan Rouhani is ahead of his nearest competitor in an initial count of votes in the election.

Interior Ministry deputy minister Ali Asghar Ahmadi told journalists in a televised news conference Saturday morning that over 40 million Iranians voted in Friday's election. That puts turnout above 70 percent.

Ahmadi says the initial vote count has the moderate cleric Rouhani with 14.6 million votes. Hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi has 10.1 million votes.

Ahmadi says the Interior Ministry hopes to have final results later Saturday.

The Islamic Republic's first presidential election since the 2015 nuclear accord drew surprisingly large numbers of voters to polling stations, with some reporting waiting in line for hours to cast their votes. Election officials extended voting hours at least three times. </s> Image copyright EPA Image caption Eshaq Jahangiri (L) said he had done his "duty" and would vote for Hassan Rouhani (R)

A reformist candidate in Iran's presidential election has pulled out to smooth the path for the moderate incumbent, Hassan Rouhani.

The withdrawal of Mr Rouhani's ally, Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, from Friday's poll had been expected.

On Monday, Tehran's hardline mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf withdrew his candidacy and urged his supporters to back conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi.

He is now seen as the main threat to Mr Rouhani, who is seeking a second term.

A recent poll had put support for the two hardliners at 52% and for Mr Rouhani at about 42%. Another had Mr Rouhani at 29%, Mr Qalibaf at 12% and Mr Raisi at 11%, with 28% respondents undecided and 20% declining to answer.

If none of the four candidates remaining wins more than 50% of the vote, a run-off will be held on 26 May.

Mr Jahangiri, 60, announced his withdrawal in a speech to several thousand people gathered in the southern city of Shiraz on Tuesday, saying he had run as a candidate to "make the voice of reformists heard".

"I have completed my historic duty and, together with you, I will vote for Rouhani to help continue on the path to progress for this country," he said.

"Vote for Rouhani because he is the man for difficult situations," he added.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Ebrahim Raisi (L) was endorsed by Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf (R) on Monday

Mr Jahangiri played an important role for Mr Rouhani in the heated televised debates held in the weeks running up to the election, during which he defended the president's record and criticised his conservative rivals.

Mr Rouhani has faced a significant challenge from conservatives because the landmark nuclear deal with world powers that he negotiated in 2015 has not triggered the economic recovery he predicted.

Mr Raisi is a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and heads a multi-billion-dollar charitable foundation that manages donations to Iran's holiest shrine in the city of Mashhad.

The former prosecutor has promised to build a self-sufficient "resistance economy", create millions of jobs and triple cash hand-outs to the poor. </s> ANKARA, April 14 (Reuters) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist who championed the country's nuclear deal with world powers, registered on Friday to run for a second four-year term in the May presidential election, state TV reported.

Rouhani won election by a landslide in 2013 on a platform of ending the Islamic Republic's diplomatic isolation and creating a freer society.

The five-day registration period for the May 19 election started on Tuesday and will be followed by a process of vetting of the hopefuls by a hardline watchdog body, The Guardian Council.

Over 860 people have signed up so far for the vote. Several former ministers and hardliner former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are among those who have registered.

Despite months of talks, hardliners have been unable to unite behind a single candidate and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appears to have not yet intervened to make them do so.

Within Iran's complex mix of clerical rulers and elected officials, Khamenei has the final say on all state matters.

Influential cleric Ebrahim Raisi, the custodian of a powerful organization in charge of Iran´s holiest shrine, appears to be the leading hardline candidate.

An ally of Khamenei, Raisi has yet to register for the vote, however. Prominent conservatives, including parliament speaker Ali Larijani, have thrown their support behind Rouhani. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
Incumbent President Hassan Rouhani has a lead, citing an early official tally, and is on course to defeat his rival Ebrahim Raisi.