Iran’s Ambassador To India says ‘Will Have A New President By Tomorrow Morning’

Iran’s Ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, on Friday cast his vote in the second phase of the presidential election of Iran at a polling centre here in New Delhi, as voting remains underway in Iran to elect the successor of former President Ebrahim Raisi.

Elahi said that he is hopeful that Iran will get its new President by tomorrow. “Today, we are holding the second round of the presidential election… More than 700 polling centres are accepting the votes of Iranians. We hope that by tomorrow morning we will have a new president… There will be no changes in Iranian foreign policy and internal policy,” the envoy told ANI about the ongoing presidential runoff in Iran.

“Both discourses emphasise strengthening Iranian power internally and externally…” he added.

The presidential elections have come as Iran lost its serving president Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash on May 19. Iran’s presidential runoff comes as Iran registered a low voter turnout in the first round, with 39.92 per cent confirmed by the Interior Ministry. It was the lowest in any major election since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has also urged the people of Iran to vote, pointing out that it will become the “deciding round” to elect Iran’s president by tomorrow, reported Al Jazeera.

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The final battle is now between a reformist, Masoud Pezeshkian, and a hardline conservative, Saeed Jalili. Hardliners and conservatives are typically more critical of Western relations and of opening up Iran to outside influence.

The election was scheduled for June next year, which would have been four years after Raisi’s election. However, a 50-day constitutional window to hold a new referendum was triggered by the president’s death in a helicopter crash.

The snap election on June 28 occurred inside the 50-day legally mandated deadline for selecting a new president after Ebrahim Raisi and seven others, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, were killed in a helicopter accident on May 19.

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