Iranians are voting an a presidential election, in which Hassan Rouhani is seeking a second term.<\/p>\n
Mr Rouhani, 68, a moderate cleric who negotiated a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, is standing against three other candidates.<\/p>\n
His main challenger is seen as Ebrahim Raisi, 56, a hardline cleric and former prosecutor who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n
If no-one wins more than 50% of votes cast, a run-off will be held next week.<\/p>\n
Every incumbent president has been re-elected in Iran since 1985, when Ayatollah Khamenei himself won a second term.<\/p>\n
He cast his ballot just minutes after polls opened at 8:00 local time (03:30 GMT).<\/p>\n
Image copyrightAFP \/ IRANIAN SUPREME LEADER’S WEBSITE<\/p>\n
Image caption<\/p>\n
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts his vote<\/p>\n
“Everyone should vote in this important election,” he said, urging citizens to get the polls early.<\/p>\n
Mr Rouhani voted about an hour later.<\/p>\n
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Five things to know<\/p>\n
More than 54 million people are eligible to vote in Friday’s election.<\/p>\n
The interior ministry says that 63,500 polling stations are being used. They are due to close at 18:00 (13:30 GMT) but in previous elections voting has been extended by several hours because of high turnout.<\/p>\n
Early election results are expected on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Image copyrightAFP<\/p>\n
Image caption<\/p>\n
The four remaining candidates are (clockwise from top left) Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, Mostafa Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemitaba<\/p>\n
Six candidates were approved by the Guardian Council, an influential clerical body controlled by conservatives, but two of them dropped out earlier this week.<\/p>\n
The first was Tehran’s hardline mayor, Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf, who pledged his support for Mr Raisi on Monday. He was followed on Tuesday by Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, a reformist, who pulled out to smooth the path for Mr Rouhani.<\/p>\n
The two other candidates still in the race are Mostafa Hashemitaba, a reformist, and Mostafa Mirsalim, an ultra-conservative figure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iranians are voting an a presidential election, in which Hassan Rouhani is seeking a second term. Mr Rouhani, 68, a moderate cleric who negotiated a landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, is standing against three other candidates. His main challenger is seen as Ebrahim Raisi, 56, a hardline cleric and former prosecutor who is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. If no-one wins more than 50% of votes cast, a run-off will be held next week. Every incumbent president has been re-elected in Iran since 1985, when<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6960,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6958\/revisions\/6960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}