Top leader calls for high vote turnout
TEHRAN — Iran’s supreme leader called on Wednesday for a high turnout in this week’s presidential election, urging voters to head to the polls and send a message to the United States — but stopped short of saying which candidate he prefers of the four remaining in the race.
In a televised speech, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States and its allies, including the “pathetic prime minister of the Zionist regime” — Israel — are closely watching the vote on Friday.
He called the election a “great popular epic,” saying that while the region is “drowned in anxiety,” Iran is “peacefully and safely holding an election.”
“From the U.S. state apparatuses to European powers and regional countries aligned with America, to the pathetic prime minister of the Zionist regime, all are closely watching (the vote) and how and in what spirit” the Iranians will cast ballots, Khamenei said.
President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate, is seeking re-election in a vote that will largely serve as a referendum on his outreach to the West, which culminated in the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. Under the accord, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions.
Despite the deal, Khamenei — Iran’s top decision-maker — remains deeply suspicious of the United States and its intentions toward Iran.
Khamenei is believed to favor Rouhani’s main challenger, hard-line candidate Ebrahim Raisi, who is supported by major clerical bodies, hard-liners in the establishment and allies of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said turnout is expected to exceed 70 percent. Roughly 56.4 million people out of a population of 80 million are eligible to vote.
Fazli said that vote counting would commence after midnight and that the results would be announced “sooner” than in previous elections. In past elections, results were announced two days later.
Also Wednesday, Hassan Qashqavi, deputy foreign minister in charge of consular affairs and Iranian expatriates, said polling would also be held Friday for Iranian expatriates in 102 countries. The largest number of polling stations — 55 — would be in the U.S., where more than 1 million Iranians live, he said. In the 2013 election, 20 polling stations opened there for Iranian expats.