High turnout of voters for Iran's presidential election

Iranians Flock to Polls in Presidential Election

June 12, 2009
TEHRAN (FNA)-

Iranian voters queued up at the polling stations in a hotly-contested election on Friday morning to choose their next president to steer the country for the next four years.

FNA reports said voters are standing in long queues to cast their ballots in favor of their candidate.

Authorities appeared overwhelmed by the large number of people who began lining up even before polling stations opened, with many Iranians complaining of long waits of up to two hours for casting their ballots.

Voting will last 10 hours, but it could be extended if necessary. Counting of the ballots will start at 24:00 local time and final results will be announced in 24 hours after the election.

The four applicants qualified to stand the upcoming presidential election are incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi Khamene, ex-Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi and Principlist politician and former commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezai Mir-Qaed.

Candidates started official campaigning on May 22, which lasted for 20 days and ended on Thursday morning as the Iranian law requires all candidates end election campaign 24 hours before the polls open.

Analysts believe that Ahmadinejad and Mousavi are the main two rivals in the 10th presidential race in the Islamic Republic.

Ahmadinejad's supporters are more from the rural areas and small towns with a population of 15,300,000 and 19,600,000, respectively, while Mousavi more enjoys the support of residents in large cities where 11, 260,000 people are eligible to vote.

According to presidential election laws, all Iranian nationals above 18 years of age are eligible to vote. Interior Ministry said that around 46.2 million Iranian citizens are eligible to vote.

Head of Iran's Electoral Headquarters Kamran Daneshjoo said that a number of 45,713 ballot boxes have been stationed in 368 cities and 558 districts inside the country while 304 ballot boxes in 32 polling stations will gather the votes of the Iranian expatriates in 130 world countries, including the United States, Turkey, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Observers predict a high turnout similar to previous elections in the Islamic Republic in the post-revolution era.

The next president of the country will be elected if one of the four vote-getters manages to secure 50 percent plus one of the votes, otherwise, a runoff between the two top contenders on June 19 will determine the next president.

The Iranian interior ministry has said the final results of the presidential election will be declared a day after the event, i.e. June 13.

People in Tehran and Golestan Provinces should also vote on mid-term Experts Assembly election today.

FNA will inform you of the election results at the earliest and round the clock.

High turnout of voters for Iran's presidential election

2009-06-12 11:30:16

·Iranians began voting Friday morning in a presidential election. ·Polling stations, which opened at 8 a.m. local time will close at 18:00 p.m.. ·Iranian police have taken strict security measures at polling stations.

TEHRAN, June 12 (Xinhua) --

Voters are actively casting their ballots in Iran's presidential election at polling stations throughout the country which started at 8:00 a.m. local time (0330GMT). Long queues are seen at every polling station before the voting began.

Iran's Interior Ministry said the turnout of voters is expected to be over 70 percent, and in the first four hours, five million voters have cast their ballots in polling stations nationwide.

Local people said the feverish election campaign and high turnout of voters was never seen in all previous presidential elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Many voters say it is the first time they vote in the presidential election, and some people return from abroad specially to cast their ballots.

Shortly after the voting started, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his vote at a mosque near his residence, praising the "passionate and peaceful" election campaign and called on the Iranian people to use their right to vote as a way to fulfill "a religious and logical duty."

"Hopefully, the most qualified and competent person would be elected as the head of the executive branch of the government," the leader said after his vote.

Meanwhile, all four presidential candidates -- incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, ex-prime minister Mir-Houssein Mousavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former chief of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Mohsen Rezaei have cast their votes at different polling stations.

There are 46.2 million eligible voters for this year's presidential election. A total of 45,713 ballot boxes have been set up in cities, towns and villages nationwide.

Voting time will last until 18:00 p.m. (1330 GMT), and could remain open till midnight in case of high voter turnout.

Voter turnout is expected to be much higher than last presidential election in 2005 -- 63 percent in the first round and48 percent in the run-off.

According to Iran's electoral law, any candidate who gains over50 percent of the vote wins the presidential election. If no winner emerges in the first round, the top two candidates will contest in a run-off one week later.

The Iranian police have taken strict security measures, police cars are seen patrolling the streets in Tehran, and policemen and military servicemen are seen outside and inside every polling station to keep order and prevent possible outbreak of violence.

Iran's presidential race most tense ever

2009-06-12 05:28:39

·The conservative and the reformist camps gear up rhetorics of accusing each other. ·Incumbent president was almost the target of all the attacks by the three other rivals. ·Analysts kept divergent opinions on who would finally win the tense competition.

by Mehdi Bagheri

TEHRAN, June 11 (Xinhua) --

Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the upcoming presidential campaigning this year is the most tense political event that the country has ever experienced.

The conservative and the reformist camps confronted one another, gearing up rhetorics of accusing each other and making the atmosphere increasingly tense in the run-up to the voting on Friday.

As a sign of open and competitive condition, Iran's state television, for the first time, managed a series of debates between the four candidates: incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, former Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezaei.

The debates, not just aiming at clarifying the positions and programs of the candidates, were also used by the candidates to publicize the political, social, economic and even personal downsides of each other for the sake of gaining points.

The incumbent president was almost the target of all the attacks by the three other rivals.

Mousavi, the major challenger to Ahmadinejad, lashed out at the government's tough foreign polices, especially concerning Israel, that he said had caused "global consensus against Iran."

He also accused Ahmadinejad of "twisting the truth" on the economic and social growth figures and achievement statistics represented to the public.

Karroubi, another reformist rival, highlighted Ahmadinejad's failure on providing the social freedom, "falsifying the economic figures and developing superstitions."

The conservative hopeful, Rezaei, was even more critical on the administration's economic policies by reasoning on the high inflation and the high unemployment in the country.

The former Revolutionary Guards chief further accused the president of not using gifted experts as the consultant.

The besieged president dismissed all these accusations as propaganda and ignorance of his achievements, especially in the areas of the country's nuclear program and missile advancements.

For his part, Ahmadinejad targeted the rivals by drawing upon their "economically corrupted supporters," their suspicious economic gains, their lack of expertise on the special jargons and their false predictions on the sensitive issues related to the country.

One of Ahmadinejad's fiercest attack on some rivals came on Wednesday when he was addressing thousands of his supporters in Tehran's Azadi Street where he referred to campaign strategies adopted by his rivals as the "methods utilized by Hitler."

He said, "the nation will say a bigger 'No' to the enemies, thus throwing them to the abyss of history" in the upcoming elections slated for June 12.

The recent overtures offered by the new U.S. President Barack Obama were also used by Ahmadinejad to prove the success of his tough policies.

With divergent opinions on who would finally win the tense competition, local analysts have been cautious about the aftermath of such a rarity in the country's political scene.

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