Ultraconservative elected president in Iran
19 June, 2021
Congratulations poured in for Iranian ultraconservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday for winning presidential elections even before official results were announced.
Iran's outgoing moderate President Hassan Rouhani said his successor had been elected in the previous day's vote, without naming the widely expected winner, Raisi.
"I congratulate the persons on their choice," said Rouhani. "My official congratulations should come later, but we realize who got enough votes in this election and who's elected today by the people."
The other two ultraconservative individuals -- Mohsen Rezai and Amirhossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi -- explicitly congratulated Raisi.
"I congratulate ... Raisi, elected by the country," Ghazizadeh-Hashemi said, quoted by Iranian media.
And Rezai tweeted that he hoped Raisi could build "a solid and popular government to fix the country's problems".
The only reformist in the race, former central bank governor Abdolnasser Hemmati, also tweeted his congratulations to Raisi.
Source: japantoday.com
TAG(s):