28 Mar 2024
Saturday 20 May 2017 - 16:46
Story Code : 261722

Spokesman: Iranians convinced their votes define policies

FNA- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the large public turnout in the Friday election showed that people in Iran have learned the correct way to exercise their will and lead their country towards development.

"This magnificent participation (of the people in the Friday presidential election) shows the Iranians' awareness, wisdom and development," Qassemi said on Saturday following a large election on Friday that saw President Hassan Rouhani win to rule the country for another four-year term.

"Actually, this indicates that the Iranians have learned that they can and should use the ballot box and peaceful means to initiate development and prosperity," he added.

Qassemi underlined that the mass-participation also showed that the Iranian people trust in the government to secure their votes.

President Rouhani was officially named as the winner of Iran's Friday election to maintain power for another 4-year term in office.

Iran's election headquarters said Rouhani has won 23,549,616(57%) votes from the 41,220,131 (99.7%) ballots cast by the Iranian people on Friday.

His main rival Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi has secured 15,786,449 (38.5%) votes.

Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim has won 478,215votes ranking 3rd in the race for the Islamic Republic's presidential post, while Seyed Mostafa Hashemi-Taba has gathered 215,450votes.

A number of 56, 410,000 people were eligible to vote in the elections. 1,350,294 million youths came to be eligible to vote for the first time in their lives as the voting age in Iran is above 18 according to the law.

City and village council elections were held in tandem with the 12th presidential vote on Friday. The elections were held at 63,500 polling stations in Iran and hundreds more in nearly 100 other world countries.

Campaigning for the May 19 presidential election kicked off in Iran on April 21 after the Guardian Council released the list of 6 qualified candidates, although only 4 remained for the race.

The qualified candidates represented a wide range of political streams from Principlists to Reformists.

People throughout the country also cast their ballots to elect members of city and village councils along with the presidential election on Friday.

Voting lasted for 16 hours and polls closed at 24:00 local time after the deadline was extended four times. Ballot counting started at 24:00 midnight and final results will be announced in 24 hours following the election.
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