Voting operations were extended on Friday until 8 p.m. (4:30 p.m. GMT) in Iran for a presidential election whose outcome looks uncertain due to the breakthrough of a reformer against divided conservative candidates.
This extension, usual for elections in Iran, was announced by the Interior Ministry, which could still extend it until 10 p.m. or even midnight.
Authorities did not provide any figures on turnout, although some 61 million voters were expected to cast their ballots at 58,640 polling stations across the country.
Throughout the day, state media showed lines of men and women waiting, ID in hand, to cast their ballots at mosques and schools decked out in the national colours.
As is tradition, it was the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who launched the operations by voting at 8 a.m. (4:30 a.m. GMT), in front of dozens of cameras, in Tehran.
“Election day is a day of joy and happiness for us Iranians,” he said. “We recommend our dear people to take voting seriously and participate in it. I see no reason to hesitate.”
This election was hastily organized after the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi in a helicopter accident on May 19.
It is being closely followed abroad as Iran, a Middle Eastern heavyweight, is at the heart of several geopolitical crises, from the war in Gaza to the nuclear issue, in which it opposes Western countries.
Four candidates, men in their fifties or sixties, are in the running.
If none of them garners more than half of the votes, a second round will be held on July 5, which has only been the case in one presidential election, in 2005, since the advent of the Republic. Islamic 45 years ago.
Official results are expected no later than Sunday, but estimates are expected to be released on Saturday.
The hope of the reform camp
The surprise may come from the lone reformist candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old lawmaker who was virtually unknown when he was allowed to run by the Guardian Council, the body charged with overseeing the elections.
Discreet in appearance but speaking frankly, this doctor from the Azeri minority has given new hope to the reformist and moderate camps, totally marginalized in recent years by the conservatives and ultraconservatives.
Facing him, the supporters of the current government are divided between the candidates Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, conservative president of Parliament, and Saïd Jalili, former ultraconservative negotiator of the nuclear issue and hostile to a rapprochement with the West.
To hope to win, Massoud Pezeshkian must count on a sharp increase in turnout compared to the last elections, which were shunned by around half of the voters.
Only 49% of them voted in the 2021 presidential election, for which no major reform or moderate candidate was allowed to compete.
Opponents, particularly those in the diaspora, have called for a boycott of the vote.
Former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who did not participate in the legislative elections in March in order to protest against the disqualification of reformists, nevertheless voted in the morning.
On the other hand, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Moussavi, under house arrest since 2011, announced via his daughter on Instagram that he would not participate in the vote.
For Mohammad Reza Hadi, a 37-year-old voter interviewed at a polling station in Tehran, it is important to vote “in order to choose for ourselves the political fate of our country.” “It is a way to express our demands,” Ehsan Ajdi, a polling station worker, told AFP.
The veil in debate
Whatever the outcome, the election is expected to have limited repercussions because the president has limited powers: he is responsible for implementing, at the head of the government, the broad political guidelines set by the supreme leader, who is the head of state.
During the debates, ultraconservative Said Jalili criticized the moderates for signing the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal with the major powers, which “did not benefit Iran at all.”
“Are we supposed to be eternally hostile to America or do we yearn to resolve our problems with this country? “, asked Mr. Pezeshkian, calling for a relaunch of the nuclear agreement in order to lead to a lifting of the severe sanctions which are affecting the Iranian economy.
Furthermore, the very sensitive issue of the compulsory wearing of the veil for women has emerged in the campaign, almost two years after the vast protest movement that shook the country at the end of 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, arrested for non-compliance with the dress code.
In the televised debates, the candidates distanced themselves from the police arrests, sometimes heavy-handed, of women refusing to wear the hijab in public places.
“We should not treat Iranian women with such cruelty under any circumstances,” said Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the only religious candidate.