TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s top leader has called for high turnout in Friday’s presidential election, urging voters to send a message to the United States.
In a televised speech Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the United States and its allies, including the “pathetic prime minister of the Zionist regime,” or Israel, are closely watching the vote.
He called the election a “great popular epic,” saying that while the region is “drowned in anxiety,” Iran is “peacefully and safely holding an election.”
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, seen as a relative moderate, is seeking re-election in a vote that will largely serve as a referendum on his outreach to the West, which culminated in the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iranian President and candidate in the upcoming presidential elections Hassan Rouhani gestures during a campaign rally in the northwestern city of Ardabil on May 17, 2017. (AFP Photo/Behrouz Mehri)
Khamenei, who will remain Iran’s top decision-maker, is deeply suspicious of the United States. He is believed to favor Rouhani’s main challenger, the hard-line candidate Ebrahim Raisi.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said turnout is expected to exceed 70 percent. Some 56.4 million people out of a population of 80 million are eligible to vote.
Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi addresses his supporters during a campaign rally at Imam Khomeini Mosque in the capital Tehran on May 16, 2017. (AFP Photo/Atta Kenare)
Fazli said the vote counting would commence after midnight and that the results would be announced “sooner” than in previous elections. In past elections, the results have been announced two days later, on Sunday.
Rouhani won the 2013 presidential election with nearly 51 percent of the vote. Turnout for that election was 73 percent.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll gain access to some amazing Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
comments