Voting kicks off for Iran presidential runoff election

Over 64 million people are eligible to vote to choose a candidate to succeed the late President Ebrahim Raisi who lost his life in a helicopter crash last month.

Veteran lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian who is also a heart surgeon by profession represents the reformist and moderate camps and former top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili stands as a conservative face off in the second round.

Over 10.4 million out of the 24.5 million people who took part in the first round voted for Pezeshkian, and Jalili received 9.4 million of the votes.

Iranians abroad will also cast their ballots simultaneously. 344 polling stations have been provided across the world to facilitate their voting process.

The polling stations will close at 06:00 pm local time (14:30 GMT) but the interior ministry can extend it for multiple two-hour periods until 12:00 pm.

The results of the election are expected to be announced by Saturday noon, the spokesman for Election Headquarters Mohsen Eslami told Iran’s state television.