The Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Friday evening the closure of polling stations in the second round of the presidential elections, with the legal deadline ending at midnight local time, and the start of counting votes in the election in which reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili competed.
The Iranian Interior Ministry said that voters present inside polling stations will be allowed to vote after the legal deadline ends.
The ministry added that the vote counting process will begin at polling stations where there are no voters.
The Iranian authorities extended voting twice for two hours each time until midnight, and the ballot boxes were supposed to close at 8 pm.
About 61 million voters were called to participate in the second round of the presidential elections to decide the competition between Jalili and Pezeshkian. The reformist candidate had won over his conservative rival in the first round held on June 28 to choose the successor to the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last May.
Shortly after polling stations opened at 8 a.m., Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei cast his vote, according to footage broadcast on state television.
