The Iranian Interior Ministry has declared a first series of partial results from the Friday presidential election, putting Hassan Rouhani in the lead with 14,619,848 votes so far. Out of the 25,966,729 votes counted so far, 25,182,310 ballots were declared valid.

The candidate with the second largest number of votes was Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi, who garnered 10,125,855 votes, according to the Interior Ministry. Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemi-Taba, the other two candidates, so far received 297,276 and 139,331 votes respectively.

Ali Asghar Ahmadi, the head of the Election Committee of Iran’s Interior Ministry, who announced the partial results, also said that over 40 million people voted in the election but said that turnout figure was not a final one. Iran’s 12th presidential election was held on Friday. Elections were also simultaneously held for City and Village Councils. Voting hours were extended several times due to a high turnout in the polls.

Six candidates had been vetted and approved by the Guardian Council to run in the election. In the final days of campaigning, however, two of the candidates, namely First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, withdrew from the race in favor of President Rouhani and Raeisi, respectively.

Source: Presstv