Iran, on Friday, headed to presidential election tipped in the favour of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fuelling public apathy and sparking calls for a boycott in the Islamic Republic. State-linked opinion polling and analysts put hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as the dominant front-runner in a field of just four candidates. Former Central Bank chief, Abdolnasser Hemmati, is running as the race's moderate candidate but hasn't inspired the same support as outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, who is term-limited from seeking office again. Polls opened at 7 am local time for the vote, which has seen widespread public apathy after a panel under Khamenei barred hundreds of candidates, including reformists and those aligned with Rouhani.
Raisi, in 2017, contested in elections and lost to Rouhani. Raisi, who has served as deputy prosecutor general of Tehran, participated in a ‘death commission’ that ordered the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988." Raisi was sanctioned by the US, following the executions. If elected, Raisi would be the first serving Iranian president sanctioned by the US government even before entering office.
He was also involved in the brutal crackdown of Iran's Green Movement protests, that took place right after the 2009 election. The 2009 election was won by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had the backing of the Alliance of Builders or Developers.
Khamenei cast the ceremonial vote from Tehran, where he urged the public to take part. “Through the participation of the people the country and the Islamic ruling system will win great points in the international arena, but the ones who benefit first are the people themselves,” Khamenei said. State television offered tight shots of polling places, several of which seemed to have only a handful of voters in the election's early hours. Those passing by several polling places in Tehran said they similarly saw few voters.
The Iranian Students' Polling Agency has projected the turnout to be low at 42 per cent.
Raisi, wearing a black turban that identifies him in Shiite tradition as a direct descendant of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, voted from a mosque in southern Tehran, waving to those gathered to cast ballots. As supreme leader, Khamenei has the final say on all matters of state and oversees its defence and atomic programme. “This is not acceptable,” said former President Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who sought to change its theocracy from inside during his eight years in office.
--With PTI inputs