SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iranians living in the Kurdistan Region on Friday went to polls opened at consulates to vote in Iran’s presidential elections.
Iranians voted on Friday in an election expected to deliver the presidency to a hardline judge subject to U.S. sanctions, though many are likely to ignore the ballot amid economic hardship and calls for a boycott by liberals at home and abroad.
Iranians who live in the Kurdistan Region are also able to vote to elect a presidential candidate at polls in the consulates in Erbil and Sulaimani.
According to the Kurdistan Region’s Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC), there are 10,760 Iranians settling in the Region.
Under pressure over rising inflation and joblessness, the clerical leadership needs a high vote count to boost its legitimacy, damaged after a series of protests against poverty and political restrictions across Iran since 2017.
“Each vote counts … come and vote and choose your president … this is important for the future of your country,” said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after casting his vote in the capital, Tehran.
Iran’s state television showed long queues outside polling stations in several cities. More than 59 million Iranians are eligible to vote. Polls will close at 1930 GMT but can be extended for two hours. The results are expected around midday on Saturday.
Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi, 60, a close ally of Khamenei, is favourite to succeed the incumbent Hassan Rouhani, forbidden under the constitution from serving a third four-year term.
Raisi’s main rival is a pragmatist technocrat, former central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati, who says a win for any hardliner will result in yet more sanctions imposed by outside powers. Iran could hold talks with longtime arch-foe the United States if it adhered to “positive coexistence” with Iran, he said in the election campaign.
Raisi has crucial backing from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful institution which over the years has opposed reformist initiatives, overseen the suppression of protests and used proxy forces to assert Iran’s regional influence.
The mid-ranking cleric says he backs Iran’s talks with six major powers to revive the nuclear deal, under which Iran agreed to curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.
But Raisi, who shares Khamenei’s suspicion of detente with the West, says only a powerful government can implement any revival of the pact.
