Iran votes for new president ultraconservative tipped to win

Iranians voted Friday in a presidential election in which ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi, is seen as all but certain to coast to victory after all serious rivals were barred from contesting.   

After a lacklustre campaign, turnout was expected to plummet to a new low in a country exhausted by a punishing regime of US economic sanctions that has dashed hopes for a brighter future.   

The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cast the first vote in Tehran and then urged Iran’s nearly 60 million eligible voters to follow suit before the scheduled close of polls at midnight (1930 GMT).   

 “The sooner you perform this task and duty, the better,” the 81-year-old Khamenei said, stressing that voting “serves to build the future” of the 
Iranian people.   

But enthusiasm has been dampened by the disqualification of many hopefuls from the race and the deep economic malaise which has sparked spiralling inflation and job losses, the crisis deepened by the Covid pandemic.   

 “I’m not a politician, I don’t know anything about politics,” said Tehran car mechanic Nasrollah. “I have no money. All families are now facing economic problems.   

 “How can we vote for these people who did this to us? It’s not right.”   

Iranian opposition groups abroad and some dissidents at home have urged a boycott of the vote they see as an engineered victory for Raisi, the 60-year-old head of the judiciary, to cement ultraconservative control. 
TEHRAN AFP June18, 2021