Iranian voters turned out in huge numbers recently,
a late surge of interest in the presidential vote that seemed to swing the tide
in the favor of the most moderate candidate in the field. But it was uncertain
whether any single contestant would exceed the 50 percent threshold needed to
avoid a runoff next week.
With long lines at the polls, voting hours were
extended by five hours in parts of Tehran and four hours in the rest of the
country. Turnout reached 75 percent, by official count, as disaffected members
of the Green Movement, which was crushed in the uprising that followed the
disputed 2009 presidential election, dropped a threatened boycott and appeared
to coalesce behind a cleric, Hassan Rowhani, and the mayor of Tehran, Mohammad
Baqer Ghalibaf.
Iran’s interior minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar,
said Saturday morning on state television that preliminary results showed Mr.
Rowhani with a strong lead, followed by Mr. Ghalibaf. Mr. Najjar did not say
when the final result would be available. Iran has more than 50 million
eligible voters and as of early Saturday morning nearly three million votes had
been counted.
The early results seemed to be a repudiation of the
coalition of conservative clerics and Revolutionary Guard commanders, the
so-called traditionalists, who consolidated power after the 2009 election,
which the opposition said was rigged. The traditionalists’ favored candidate,
Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and a protégé of the supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, did not seem to have gained much traction with
the public, emphasizing vague concepts like “Islamic society” and standing up
to Western pressure.
Early Saturday, officials at the Interior Ministry
with access to the preliminary tallies said that Mr. Rowhani appeared to be the
clear winner in some cities but that nothing had been confirmed. The ministry’s
early figures showed Mr. Rowhani with just under 50 percent of the votes
counted, news agencies reported. Early Saturday, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, the
spokesman for the Guardian Council, warned against publishing any rumors and
urged all to wait for the official results.
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