The conservatives are divided and are likely to steal votes from one another. Moderates and reformers united around Hassan Rohani hope for a run off on 21 June. The Supreme Leader: "The votes needed to give Ahmadinejad’s successor the strength to fight the enemies of our Republic."

Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Polls opened in elections for the new president of Iran his morning at 8 am (5:30 in Italy). After two terms and eight years in power, the outgoing President Ahmadinejad leaves the field: predictions about the outcome are uncertain, given that none of the six major candidates seem to have the strength to be elected outright in the first round.

The reformist candidate, Hassan Rohani, has earned the support of the moderates - chief among them the former president Khatami - and hopes to reach at least the second round on June 21. The divisions among conservatives - represented by the chief nuclear negotiator Jalili Saad, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati and the Mayor of Tehran Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are still unresolved and the three risk stealing votes from each other.

Rohani, 65, is a Shiite cleric and former head of the nuclear negotiations at the time of the reformist Khatami. He graduated in law at the University of Tehran, and also received a doctorate in Glasgow. In his campaign he proposes greater press freedom and less social control. He has already said he wants to direct society toward a less confrontational style with the West. According to analysts, the key to his campaign might just be the union of the reformists and moderates around a single candidate.

In any case, several members of the moderate side also emphasize, it is unlikely that the vote will bring some substantial change in relations between Iran and the West. Of the three conservative candidates, only Jalili wants to maintain robust intransigency of Iran on the nuclear issue while the other two - Velayati and Qalibaf - have no intention of withdrawing from the program that so worries the West, but have strongly criticized the intransigent policies of Jalili.

Polling stations will be open for 10 hours, although the Ministry of the Interior may decide to postpone the closure until midnight depending on the influx. If no one candidate manages to obtain 50.1% of the vote,  (as seems obvious) the it will go to a run-off on June 21, the first results are expected by Saturday.

Perhaps in an effort to unify the conservative sector, the Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has urged Iranians this morning to vote en masse for the presidential election. The religious and political leader of the country has also pointed out several times in recent weeks, "the supreme importance" of the popular vote is to give Ahmadinejad's successor: "the necessary strength to stand up against enemies and aggressors more properly ". So far exit polls indicate a turnout of 60-70% with peaks of 77%. In the parliamentary elections last year, the voter turnout was 64.2%.

 

• iran
• elections
• president
• ayatollah
• khamenei
• tehran
• vote
• moderates
• conservatives