Iran's Interior Ministry announces President Hassan Rouhani has won re-election.
ADVERTISEMENTIran’s President Hassan Rouhani has won re-election with 23.5 million votes, the Interior Ministry has announced.
Some 40 million people turned out to cast their ballot. That’s around 70 percent of the electorate.
The campaign was hard-fought, particularly between moderate Rouhani and his closest contender, hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.
During a live television debate ahead of the ballot, they traded accusations of graft and brutality. Both deny the charges.
Raisi had been pegged to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He has accused Rouhani of selling out the values of Iran’s Islamic revolution to its enemies.
During his first term in office, the president struck a deal with world powers to curb the country’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Both candidates have called for the outcome to be respected. In 2009, deadly protests erupted when reformists disputed the electoral victory of hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Rouhani is to make a televised victory speech at 3.30pm CET.