Iranians vote in election set to hand presidency to hardline judge

DUBAI • Iranians voted yesterday in a presidential election likely to be won by a hardline cleric subject to US sanctions, though many are expected to ignore the ballot amid economic hardship and calls for a boycott by liberals at home and abroad.

With uncertainty surrounding Iran's efforts to revive its 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, the turnout is being viewed by analysts as a referendum on the leadership's handling of an array of crises. After voting in the capital Teheran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to cast their ballots, saying "each vote counts... come and vote and choose your president".

The favourite to succeed Mr Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist prevented under the Constitution from serving a third four-year term, is ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi. The hardliner, like his political patron Khamenei, is an implacable critic of the West.

"If elected, Raisi will be the first Iranian president in recent memory to have not only been sanctioned before he has taken office, but potentially sanctioned while being in office," said analyst Jason Brodsky. That fact could alarm Washington and liberal Iranians, analysts of Iranian politics said, especially given US President Joe Biden's sharpened focus on human rights globally.

A mid-ranking figure in the hierarchy of Iran's Shi'ite Muslim clergy, Mr Raisi was appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei to the high-profile job of judiciary chief in 2019. A few months later, the US imposed sanctions on him for alleged human rights violations, including the executions of political prisoners in 1980s and the suppression of unrest in 2009, events in which he played a part, according to human rights groups. Iran has never acknowledged the mass executions. Polls closed last night and the results are expected around midday today.

"Elections are important despite the problems and issues... I wish we didn't have any of those problems since the registration day," said Mr Rouhani, after casting his vote, a clear reference to the rejection of moderate and conservative candidates from the race by a hardline election body. Official opinion polls suggest turnout could be as low as 44 per cent, significantly lower than in past elections.

Mr Raisi's main rival is a pragmatist technocrat, former central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, who says a win for any hardliner will result in yet more sanctions imposed by outside powers. Iran could hold talks with longtime arch-foe the United States if it adhered to "positive co-existence" with Iran, he said in the election campaign.

REUTERS