�Initial results emerged so far from the June 18 Iran presidential election announced by the Election Office suggest that Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi has taken a wide lead over rivals with 17.8 million votes out of 28.6 million ballots counted.






Iran's Deputy Interior Minister and Head of Election Office Jamal Araf announced on Saturday that 28.6 million ballots have been counted until 11:00 am local time June 19. The initial results, Araf said, show that Raisi obtained 17.8 million votes.

Mohsen Rezaei Mirqaed has 3.3 million votes so far and Abdolnaser Hemmati and Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh have obtained 2.4 million and one million votes respectively, according to initial results.

Though�the final results are yet to be announced, Rezaei, Hemmati and Ghazizadeh have already congratulated Raisi on his victory in separate messages.

Rezaei said that the Iranian nation proved once again that they would spare no efforts to safeguard the Islamic Republic and its security. Hemmati hoped that Raisi�s administration would elevate Iranians� livelihood and provide them with welfare. Ghazizadeh thanked Iranians for their massive participation in the election despite their discontent over �the current administration�s performance�.

Iran�s presidential election started in polling stations across the country as well as�in 133 countries at 07:00 on June 18. The election time was extended twice until 2:00 AM June 19.

Some 500 international journalists from 226 foreign media covered the event in Iran.

Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Mehralizadeh and Alireza Zakani, three other presidential candidates, dropped out of the presidential race.

The 13th presidential election was held simultaneous with the sixth round of city and village councils elections, the first mid-term for 11th parliament�s by-election, and the second mid-term for the fifth Assembly of Experts election.