Reformist hopeful Massoud Pezeshkian is leading the race for Iran’s presidency, early election results suggested on Saturday.
Iranians cast votes on Friday to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed along with several senior officials in a helicopter crash last month.
Mohsen Eslami, spokesman for the Iranian poll panel, said ballot boxes from 47,604 polling stations had been counted so far.
IRNA quoted Eslami as saying more than 61 million Iranians were eligible to vote in the 14th presidential ballot.
Preliminary results indicate a close race between Pezeshkian and conservative politician Saeed Jalili. Pezeshkian has won 8,302,577 votes and Jalili 7,189,756.
If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, a runoff between the top two runners will take place held on the first Friday after the result is announced.
Jalili is the direct representative of the supreme leader to the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC).
PAN Monitor/mud
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