Iran elections: polls close at 2 am.

Its closure has been exceptionally postponed three times due to health measures that delayed the voting process and the influx of voters in the afternoon and evening.

The Ministry of Interior rejected the request of the reformist candidate Abdel Nasser Hamati to extend the opening of polling stations for the fourth time.

Iranians were due to choose a new president on Friday in an election that, according to opinion polls, would be won by Governor Ibrahim Raisi, against the backdrop of discontent over the serious economic and social crisis plaguing the country.

According to social media, the survey was conducted without incident.

The head of the judiciary, Mr. Raisi, 60, is an archival favorite, as there is no real competition after his main opponents have been excluded. Can be elected in the first round.

59.3 million voters were invited to choose among the country’s four candidates.

The few polls available before the vote predicted a record abstention, at around 60%, but according to Fars, turnout could cross the 50% mark.

The Ministry of Interior, which will announce the participation rate at night, denied the figures circulated this evening.

Of the seven candidates at the start of the election campaign, three withdrew along the way, leaving four candidates to participate in the electorate.

And all the candidates promised to correct the economic situation of the country, which is subject to stifling US sanctions.

The solution lies in lifting these sanctions, the subject of negotiations to save the Vienna Agreement on Iranian nuclear energy by reintegrating the United States into it.

Iranians are divided

On a street in Tehran, a nurse in a black chador says she wants to vote for the master who struggled firmly against corruption. I hope he knows Spare the population Deprivation, at-elle dit à l’AFP.

Housewife Zahra Farhani says she went to an office excessive. She is determined to go and vote later, About Muhammad Al-RaisiWhich she also says she appreciates تقدر On top of justice.

Hossein Ahmadi will not vote. This carpenter accuses the authorities of not being there Nothing happened for the sake of the homeland.

for him, The situation is that we have no choice but to remain silent and stay at home hoping our voices will be heard.

Saeed Al-Zari Al-Tajer will abstain from voting because, Whether I vote or notHe told AFP, Someone has already been elected: they are organizing elections for the media.

Former President Ahmadinejad boycotted the vote

In 2017, President Hassan RouhaniRe-elected in the first round, she is a moderate calling for a policy of openness with the West and more individual liberties. The participation rate was 73%. But the hope he embodied gave way to disappointment.

In the face of calls for a boycott by the opposition in exile, and by some dissidents in Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei has increased calls to participate en masse in the ballot.

Elections no matter what, despite the problems, we must go and voteRouhani said after his card slipped into the ballot box, referring to unqualified candidates.

One of the most famous of them, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, published a video message on Friday denouncing the organization of elections. against the interests of the country. I do not want to participate in this sin هذه, He said.

Rouhani’s policy failed to open

In addition to Mr. Raisi, who received 38% of the vote against Mr. Rouhani in 2017, there are three candidates in competition: the unknown MP, Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi; The former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, and the technocrat Abdel Nasser Hemmati, the former head of the Central Bank.

Mr. Rouhani’s record, who cannot run for a third consecutive term, has been marred by the failure of his opening policy after the United States, in 2018, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal with major powers.

This withdrawal and the ensuing reimposition of US sanctions plunged the country into a deep recession, intimidating foreign investors and depriving the government of oil export revenues. In December and January 2017-2018 and in November 2019, Two waves of protests were violently suppressed.

For the exiled opposition and human rights defenders, Mr. Raisi is an embodiment of oppression and his name is linked to the mass executions of leftist detainees in 1988, a tragedy in which he denies any involvement.