Iran’s state television congratulated President Hassan Rouhani for winning a re-election by handing an emphatic defeat to his hardline rival Ebrahim Raisi.
Rouhani won 22.8 million votes in Friday’s hard-fought contest, compared to 15.5 million for Raisi, with 38.9 million votes counted, the Interior Ministry said, adding more votes were still to be tallied.
Rouhani, a 68-year-old moderate cleric who spearheaded a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, has framed the vote as a choice between greater civil liberties and “extremism”. But he has faced stiff competition from hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, 56, who positioned himself as a defender of the poor and called for a much tougher line with the West.
