Tehran, Jun 28 (EFE).- Presidential elections kicked off on Friday in Iran without a clear favorite and amid citizen indifference due to the bad economic situation and disenchantment with the Islamic Republic.
Some 58,000 polling stations opened at 8 am local time and are scheduled to close at 6 pm across the country, where more than 61 million people are called to the polls, according to Fars News Agency, managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Without a clear favorite, the Iranians will decide between the pragmatic conservative Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the ultra-conservative Saeed Jalili and the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian to succeed President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in an accident in May.
The Iranian president has the power to decide on national issues and to a lesser extent on foreign and security policy in Iran, where the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, serves as head of state with broad powers.
Local poll data point to a possible runoff in a week given that no candidate is expected to get 50 percent of the votes.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, voted early in the morning before the television cameras and called for widespread participation in the elections.
However, voters are full of skepticism and apathy in the midst of an economy weighed down by 40 percent inflation, a devalued rial and 20 percent youth unemployment.
Moreover, many people, especially the youth, remain disenchanted with the Islamic Republic over the lack of social freedoms, especially the compulsory Islamic veil – a hot topic since the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 under custody after being arrested for not wearing the hijab properly, which led to strong protests against the authorities.
This apathy among the 61 million voters worries the Islamic Republic, which attaches great importance to participation in the elections, expressing it as a sign of its legitimacy and popular support.
The parliamentary elections in March witnessed the lowest turnout (41 percent) in the 45-year history of the Islamic Republic, while 48 percent voted in the 2021 presidential elections.
Khamenei has called on Iranians to vote in the elections to “defeat the enemy” and elect a president who believes in the principles of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. EFE
jlr/sc
