In Brief

IRANIAN President Hassan Rouhani appeared to have secured a convincing election victory with voters backing his efforts to rebuild foreign ties, as initial results were announced yesterday.

With almost all votes counted, Rouhani looked to have an unbeatable lead with 22.8 million votes compared to 15.5 million for his challenger, Ebrahim Raisi.

A huge turnout on Friday — estimated at more than 40 million out of 56 million registered voters — led to the vote being extended by several hours to deal with long queues.

Rouhani, 68, a moderate cleric who spearheaded a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, had framed the election as a choice between greater civil liberties and “extremists”. — AFP