TABNAK: Voters across Iran are casting ballots to pick the successor to late President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a tragic helicopter crash earlier this year.
Voting in Iran began on June 28, at 8 a.m. and polls are scheduled to close at 6 p.m. local time.
AP released a report, referring to four contenders to choose from: Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf; former Chief Nuclear Negotiator Saeed Jalili, former Minister of Justice Mostafa Pourmohammadi and former Minister of Health Masoud Pezeshkian, from whom Pezeshkian is the only moderate candidate.
Al Jazeera in a report called Ghalibaf, Pezeshkian and Jalili as key rivals.
The election coincides with escalating regional tension due to war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its nuclear program, al Jazeera noted in the report.
Reuters News Agency also referred to to remarks made by Iranian Supreme Leader Seyed Ali Khamenei who called for a high turnout in the election.
"The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on people's presence," he told state television after casting his vote. "High turnout is a definite necessity."
On the other hand, NPR referred to two candidates who dropped out of the race in the lead-up to the vote this week, including Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, Head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs who had served as one of Raisi's vice presidents. The other is the Mayor of the capital Tehran, Alireza Zakani. Neither is a reformist.
More than 61.5 million Iranians aged over 18 have been given a chance to vote for a new president, Guardian said in a report, adding over 10 million Iranians are going to vote abroad.
If there is no clear majority after Friday’s vote, the top two candidates face a second round of voting on July 5. The winner will serve for four years, CNBC said, referring to nearly 60.000 ballot boxes across the country.
