![Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds a press conference after casting his vote for the snap presidential election at the Imam Khomeini Husseiniya in Tehran, Iran on June 28, 2024. [Iranian Leader Press Office/Handout - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/AA-20240628-34993008-34993007-VOTING_BEGINS_IN_IRANS_SNAP_PRESIDENTIAL_ELECTION.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said today that the turnout in the first round of the country’s presidential election was “lower than expected”, Reuters reported the semi-official Tasnim news agency saying.
Turnout was about 40 per cent, Iran’s Ministry of the Interior said – the lowest on record since the 1979 revolution.
“We hope that people’s turnout for the second round will be important and a source of pride for the Islamic Republic,” Khamenei said, calling upon Iranians to cast their ballot this Friday.
Friday’s vote will be a tight race between lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, and former Revolutionary Guards member Saeed Jalili.
The election is to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.
Khamenei added that the lower-than-expected turnout was due to “several factors” and that claims that non-voters were against the Islamic Republic were “strongly mistaken”.
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