By Jaime Ortega.
Hasan Rohani, the only moderate reformed candidate in Iran’s presidential elections, maintains a wide lead over his five rivals and slashing into a first-round victory in the first interim partial results released by the Ministry of Interior.
Rohani is coming strong, without reaching for a few points, the 50% needed to be elected president in the first round, having obtained 1,499,998 (49.87%) votes of the 2,927,547 of the possible 3,024,434 valid votes cast.
Second in line was, the ultra conservative mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Ggher Qalibaf, which obtained 487 549 (16.65%) in the partial recount, followed by the principal ultraconservative Said Halili, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator , with 383 820 (13.11%).
The other two ultra conservative candidates the secretary of Discernment Council and former Corps commander IRGC, Mohsen Rezaei, obtained 383 489 votes (13.10%) and supreme leader adviser and former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, obtained 174494 (5.96%). The sixth candidate, Mohamad Gharazi technocrat, was in last place, with only 38,197 votes (1.27%).
These results were confirmed at the end of the count, Rohani, backed by former reformist president’s Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, have achieved great success in mobilizing the electorate in its sector, disillusioned after the strong suppression of protests and accusations of fraud after the presidential elections of 2009.
