Vote-counting ends in Iran's presidential election runoff

Iranians inside and outside the country headed to polling stations in large numbers to elect a new president to replace martyr President Ebrahim Raeisi on Friday.

Polling stations across Iran have opened on Friday morning for the 14th presidential election. The voting started at 8:00 a.m. (04:30 GMT) on Friday. Iranians have headed to the polls as soon as the stations opened to elect the country’s new president.

Former health minister and senior lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian and former nuclear negotiator and chief of the top security body Saeed Jalili were in the race after securing the most votes among others in the first round.

The polls finally closed at 12:00 AM local time (08:30 GMT) on Friday, six hours beyond the stipulated 10-hour voting period as required by the Constitution.

In Friday’s runoff election, more than 30 million votes were cast accounting for over 50 percent turnout as more people flocked to polling stations in Tehran and other cities and villages across the country.

About 61 million people were eligible to vote in this year’s presidential election, including approximately 10 million Iranian nationals eligible to vote abroad.

Last data after all votes counted:

Pezeshkian: 16.384.403 of the votes

Jalili: 13.538.179 of the votes

Latest data until 05:55 local time:

Pezeshkian: 12.704.910 votes

Jalili: 10.474.238 votes 

Latest data until 05:05 local time:

Pezeshkian: 11.120.924 votes

Jalili: 9.097.993 votes

Latest data until 04:40 local time:

Pezeshkian:8.694.743 votes

Jalili: 7.535.557 votes

Latest data until 04:10 local time:

Pezeshkian: 6.939.955 votes 

Jalili: 6.359.099 votes 

Vote-counting precess is still underway. 

Latest data until 03:50 local time:

Pezeshkian: 4.996.364 votes 

Jalili: 4.526. 960 votes 

Latest data until 03:10 local time:

Pezeshkian: 2.904.227 votes 

Jalili: 2.815.566 votes 

First initial data released

According to the first report issued by Mohsen Eslami, the spokesperson for the country’s election headquarters, Masoud Pezeshkian secured 1.263.874 votes while his rival, Saeed Jalili secured 1.244.640 of the counted votes so far.

The vote-counting process is underway across the country 

MP/