A new mandate for change
Rouhani set to win a second term, despite disappointment with the slow pace of reform.
With voting in Iran’s presidential election almost completed yesterday, Hassan Rouhani had an unbeatable lead over his hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi and was poised to win a second term.
‘‘It’s over. Rouhani is the winner,’’ an Iranian official source said on condition of anonymity.
The pragmatist Rouhani had won 21.6 million votes in the hardfought contest, compared to 14 million for Raisi, with 37 million votes counted and about four million still to be tallied, the source said.
In a briefing, Interior Ministry official Ali Asghar Ahmadi outlined a similar proportion. He said that with 25 million ballots certified by the authorities so far, Rouhani had won 14.619 million and Raisi 10.125 million.
Ahmadi said turnout was about 70 per cent, roughly similar to the showing in 2013 elections when Rouhani swept into office in a landslide victory
The big turnout appeared to have favoured Rouhani, whose backers’ main worry has been apathy among reformist-leaning voters disappointed with the slow pace of change.
Rouhani, 68, who took office promising to open Iran to the world and give its citizens more freedom at home, faced an unexpectedly strong challenge from Raisi, a protege of supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The election was important ‘‘for Iran’s future role in the region and the world’’, Rouhani said after voting. He struck a deal with world powers two years ago to curb Iran’s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most economic sanctions.
Raisi, 56, has accused Rouhani of mismanaging the economy. He travelled to poor areas during the election campaign, speaking at rallies pledging more welfare benefits and jobs.
He is believed to have the backing of the powerful Revolutionary Guards security force, as well as the tacit support of Khamenei, whose powers outrank those of the elected president but who normally steers clear of day-to-day politics.
‘‘I respect the outcome of the vote of the people, and the result will be respected by me and all the people,’’ Raisi said after voting, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
However, Raisi later appeared at the Ministry of Interior in Tehran and complained of a shortage of ballot papers at many polling stations, according to Fars. More papers were subsequently sent out.
Hardliner candidate Ebrahim Raisi
The result will be respected by me and all the people.
The Guards and other hardliners had hoped that a win for Raisi would have given them an opportunity to safeguard economic and political power they see as jeopardised by the lifting of sanctions and opening the country to foreign investment.
During weeks of campaigning, the two main candidates exchanged accusations of corruption and brutality in unprecedentedly hostile television debates. Both deny the other’s accusations.
Rouhani urged the Guards not to meddle in the vote, a warning that reflects the political tension. Suspicions that the Guards and the Basij militia under their control falsified voting results in favour of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to eight months of nationwide protests in 2009, which were violently suppressed.
For ordinary Iranians, the election presented a stark choice between competing visions of the country.
Rouhani, known for decades as a mild-mannered establishment insider rather than a gung-ho reformer, has taken on the mantle of the reform camp in recent weeks, with fiery campaign speeches that attacked the human rights records of his opponents.
‘‘I voted for Rouhani to prevent Raisi’s victory. I don’t want a hardliner to be my president,’’ said voter Ziba Ghomeyshi in the capital, Tehran. ‘‘I waited in the line for five hours to cast my vote.’’
Many pro-reform voters were lukewarm Rouhani supporters, disappointed with his failure to make broader changes during his first term. But they were anxious to keep out Raisi, who they see as representing the security state at its most fearsome. In the 1980s he was one of four judges who sentenced thousands of political prisoners to death.
For conservatives, the election represented a chance to restore the values of the 1979 revolution, which requires elected officials to be subordinate to the Shi’ite Muslim clergy and supreme leader.
‘‘I voted for Raisi because he is a follower of Imam Khamenei. He will not confront the leader if elected. He will protect our Islamic identity,’’ said Mehran Fardoust, 36, a shopkeeper near the Imam Reza Shrine in the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi’s home town.
Despite the removal of nuclearrelated sanctions in 2016, lingering unilateral United States sanctions that target Iran’s record on human rights and terrorism have kept foreign companies wary of investing, limiting the economic benefits so far.