Although the powers of the elected president are limited by those of unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who outranks him, the scale of Rouhani's victory gives the pro-reform camp its strongest mandate in at least 12 years to seek the sort of change that hardliners have thwarted for decades. All candidates for elected office must be vetted, a process that excludes anyone calling for radical change, along with most reformists. Out of 25.9 million votes counted, Rouhani had 14.6 million and his hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi 10.1 million, said Ali Asghar Ahmadi on state television. Mostafa Hashemitaba, also a reformer, and conservative Mostafa Mirsalim round out the list of six presidential candidates approved by the Guardian Council, a 12-seat, appointed panel dominated by conservative, religious members. Iran's leaders are bullish about prospective turnout, with the country's interior minister predicting that more than 70 percent — or some 56.4 million people — will vote, according to The Associated Press.
Voters in Iran go to the polls to elect the President of Iran. Final opinion polls continue to predict that the incumbent Hassan Rouhani of the Moderation and Development Party will receive a majority of votes, with the conservative Combatant Clergy Association's Ebrahim Raisi as his main competition.