The head of the conservative judiciary, Raisi, who has largely won, has yet to be officially announced the winner.
Three in four Iranian presidential candidates conceded defeat hours before the Interior Ministry announced the official results.
The first reports indicated that the conservative head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, had largely won. Raisi, a protégé of Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, was widely regarded as the favorite in Friday’s election marred by low turnout and the disqualification of many candidates.
Moderate candidate Abdolnaser Hemmati congratulated Raisi on winning the election. “I hope your government, under the leadership of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will bring comfort and prosperity to our nation,” former central bank chief Hemmati said in a letter, media reported on Saturday. officials.
Raisi did not immediately recognize Hemmati’s concession, nor that of former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei, who also conceded defeat.
The other conservative candidate, Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, explicitly praised Raisi.
“I congratulate… Raisi, elected by the nation,” Hashemi said, quoted by Iranian media.
In a televised address, outgoing President Hassan Rouhani congratulated “the elected representatives of the people [president]», Without naming it.
“Because it has not yet been officially announced, I will delay the official congratulations. But it is clear who received the votes,” Rouhani said.
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