Iran votes in key Presidential contest

IRAN: Iran went to the polls on Friday to choose a new President. More than 50.5 million people were eligible to vote for the man -- no women candidates were approved -- to succeed Ahmadinejad, who is barred from standing for a third consecutive term under the constitution.

Polling stations open at 8:00 am and were scheduled to close 10 hours later, although if there is a massive turnout the Interior Ministry can extend voting until midnight. At the same time as choosing a new president from six candidates, voters also picked municipal councillors. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who called for a large turnout but not publicly stated his preference for any single candidate, voted early.

If no candidate secures 50.1 percent or more of the votes to win outright on Friday, a second round will be held a week later. The first results are expected today.

A pack of three heads the conservatives: former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and the Islamic republic's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

Both sides, reformist and conservative, have appealed for the electorate to turn out in high numbers -- the first hoping for change and the other to show the power of a regime accused of seeking to ensure victory for a Khamenei loyalist.

“Rumours that a president has already been chosen are lies,” Rowhani has said. “The president of the republic is elected by the votes of the people.” A pro-Rowhani election worker handing out leaflets in a Tehran square on the last day of campaigning said: “A boycott will serve nothing.” For both reformists and conservatives, the key on Friday will be to mobilise abstentionists who demonstrated against Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009, alleging massive electoral fraud.

AFP