The minister said that the turnout was 48.8%, which is the lowest mobilization for the presidential elections since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

Without waiting for these results to be published, outgoing President Hassan Rouhani congratulated “the people for their choice” that made it possible to determine the winner in the first round.

And according to partial official figures, Major General Mohsen Rezaei, the former commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, will take second place with more than 11.5% of the vote, ahead of the former Central Chairman. Abdul Nasser Hemmati Bank (8.3%) and MP Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Al-Hashemi (3.4%).

The three men acknowledged in their own way Mr. Raisi’s victory in messages on Instagram and Twitter or reported by Iranian media.

Amid fears of massive abstentions after calls to boycott the elections were sent from abroad, voting operations were significantly extended, until 2am on Saturday, to allow maximum participation in good conditions given the COVID-19 pandemic hitting the country hard.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who urged his countrymen to show a “huge” and “revolutionary” turnout, said on Saturday that the “biggest winner” in the elections was “the Iranian nation because it once again stood against the Islamic Republic’s propaganda.” Inform enemy mercenaries.

Elections “take place in advance”

The head of the judiciary, Mr. Raisi, 60, was a favorite of the archive, as there was no real competition after his main opponents were excluded.

The election campaign was gentle, against a public that was tired of the crisis, in a country rich in oil and gas but subject to US sanctions.

Mr. Raisi presents himself as an anti-corruption champion and defender of the popular classes with purchasing power undermined by inflation, and he is the only one of the four candidates who truly campaigned.

“I hope he knows [épargner à la population] One of her constituents in Tehran told AFP Friday, a nurse wearing a black chador.

Re-elected in 2017 in the first round against Mr. Raisi who then took 38% of the vote, President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who will leave power in August, is ending his second term at a level of unpopularity that is rarely reached.

In Tehran, it is not complicated to find abstentions who accuse the government of having “never done anything” for the country or see no point in participating in elections that are predetermined, or even according to them “organised”. • Al Raisi, known to be close to the Supreme Leader, to win.

suppression

The president has limited powers in Iran, where the Supreme Leader holds most of the power.

Rouhani’s record has been marred by the failure of his openness policy after the United States withdrew in 2018 from the Iranian nuclear deal with major powers.

This withdrawal and the ensuing re-imposition of severe US sanctions plunged the country into a violent recession, in particular depriving the government of oil export revenues.

In December and January 2017-2018 and in November 2019, two waves of protests were violently suppressed.

Sur la question du redressement de l’économie, M. Raïssi a déclaré à plusieurs reprises que la priorité était d’obtenir la levée des sanctions americaines, et donc de poursuivre les négociations en cours pour sauver l’accordes de Viennese accords United State.

For the exiled opposition and human rights defenders, Mr. Raisi is the embodiment of repression and his name is linked to the mass executions of leftist detainees in 1988, when he was Deputy Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran.

In response to a question in 2018 and 2020 on this black page of modern history, Mr. Raisi denied that he played any role there, but praised the “order” issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, to go ahead with it. This cleansing.

Mr. Raisi appears on a blacklist of Iranian officials who have been sanctioned by Washington for “complicity in serious human rights abuses”.