Iran's presidential election ended on Friday after voting was extended several times to allow millions of eligible voters to cast their ballots.
The country is looking to elect a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in the north-west of the country in May, alongside the foreign minister and several other officials.
The election is largely viewed as a three-way contest between two hardline candidates, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocates a revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and global powers.
The only other candidate in the race is hardliner Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former justice minister and interior minister. Two other hardline candidates – Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, vice president under Mr Raisi, and Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani – withdrew from the contest on Thursday.
A source close to the sole moderate candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, said, "So far, from the votes counted in small towns and villages, Pezeshkian has got around 3 million votes."
Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who will oversee the election, said all polling stations opened at 8am local time.
Polling ended at midnight in Iran after being extended three times for a total of six hours. Authorities said the initial result will be announced on Saturday.
The country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, usually one of the first people to vote, called for a high turnout after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tehran.
“The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on the presence of people,” Mr Khamenei told state television. “High turnout is a definite necessity.”
Voter turnout has plunged in elections held over the past four years, creating a crisis of legitimacy for Iran's rulers amid public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedom.
Iranians have made wide use of the hashtag #ElectionCircus on X in recent weeks, with some activists at home and abroad calling for an election boycott, saying a high turnout would legitimise the hardline regime.
The presidential election comes at a time of heightened regional tensions over Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas after the Iran-backed Palestinian group killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7.
The war triggered an escalating exchange of cross-border strikes between the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Israeli military, and attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
One of the main topics in presidential debates leading up to the election was Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with global powers, which collapsed after the US withdrew in 2018. Talks to revive the agreement, which placed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, have failed to achieve progress.
The contentious issue of the compulsory head covering for women also emerged during the campaign, almost two years since a protest movement swept the country after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested after wearing her hijab “inappropriately”.
“I did not watch any of the debates since I have no plan to vote,” Fatemeh Jazayeri, 27, an unemployed woman with a master’s degree, told AFP. “I voted for [former president Hassan] Rouhani seven years ago, but he failed to deliver his promises for a better economy. Any promise by any candidates will remain on paper only.”
While Mr Khamenei, 85, is the ultimate authority in all state affairs, the presidency has significant influence in Iran's dealings with the West, either steering it towards confrontation or diplomacy.
More than 61 million Iranians over 18 were eligible to vote in Friday's election. About 18 million are aged between 18 and 30.
Polls closed shortly after midnight, following three extensions of voting hours. Iranian state media said those who were still waiting at the polling stations would be allowed to cast their ballots, but no one else.
Manual counting of ballots means the final result is expected to be announced in only two days.
Iranian law requires a candidate to receive more than 50 per cent of the vote to win. If none of the candidates cross that threshold, the top two advance to a run-off a week later.
There has been only one presidential election run-off in Iran's history. That came in 2005, when hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
– Agencies contributed to this report
