Iran’s Ambassador Iraj Elahi Votes in Presidential Election in New Delhi

New Delhi [India], July 5: Iran’s Ambassador to India, Iraj Elahi, cast his vote in the second phase of Iran’s presidential election at a polling center in New Delhi. This election is to choose a successor to former President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on May 19.

Elahi expressed hope that Iran will have a new president by tomorrow. He stated, “Today, we are holding the second round of the presidential election… More than 700 polling centres are accepting the votes of Iranians. We hope that by tomorrow morning we will have a new president… There will be no changes in Iranian foreign policy and internal policy.”

The presidential runoff is between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hardline conservative Saeed Jalili. The election was initially scheduled for June next year but was moved up due to the constitutional requirement following Raisi’s death.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has urged the people to vote, calling this the “deciding round” to elect Iran’s new president. The first round saw a low voter turnout of 39.92%, the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.