Dubai (United Arab Emirates): The sole moderate in Iran's presidential election conceded his loss early Saturday to the country's hard-line judiciary chief. It signalled the protege of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had won a vote he dominated after the disqualification of his strongest competition.
Both moderate and former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati and former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei offered their congratulations to Ebrahim Raisi. Counting, however, continued from Friday's vote and authorities had yet to offer any official results.
Opinion polling by state-linked organizations, along with analysts, indicated that Raisi — who is under U.S. sanctions for his role in mass executions — was the front-runner in a field of only four candidates. That led to widespread apathy among eligible voters in the Islamic Republic, which long has held up turnout as a sign of support for the theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The quick concessions, while not unusual in Iran's previous elections, signalled what semiofficial news agencies inside Iran had been hinting at for hours: That the carefully controlled vote had been a blowout win for Raisi amid calls by some for a boycott. Hemmati offered his congratulations on Instagram to Raisi early Saturday.
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“I hope your administration provides causes for pride for the Islamic Republic of Iran, improves the economy and life with comfort and welfare for the great nation of Iran,” he wrote. On Twitter, Rezaei praised Khamenei and the Iranian people for taking part in the vote. “God willing, the decisive election of my esteemed brother, Ayatollah Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, promises the establishment of a strong and popular government to solve the country’s problems,” Rezaei wrote.
