Iran picks Rohani

TEHRAN,June 16(MNA) – Centrist Hassan Rohani was elected as Iran’s next president, the Interior Ministry announced on Saturday, a day after an election marked by a high turnout of 72.7 percent. Rohani, who had been endorsed by former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami, won 50.71 percent of the vote, far outpacing the other candidates. A total of 36,704,156 votes were cast, 35,458,747 of which were valid. According to the Interior Ministry, 50,483,192 people were eligible to vote in Friday’s election. Rohani received 18,613,329 votes, which just surpassed the 50 percent of the vote required for an outright victory and allowed him to avoid a run-off election that would have been held on June 21. In the Iranian system, if no presidential candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, the two top candidates must face off in a run-off election. His nearest rival was principlist Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, whose share of the vote was 16.56 percent, which translated into 6,077,292 votes. Principlist candidate Saeed Jalili received 4,168,946 votes (11.36%), centrist candidate Mohsen Rezaei received 3,884,412 (10.58%), principlist candidate Ali Akbar Velayati received 2,268,753 votes (6.18%), and independent candidate Mohammad Gharazi received 446,015 votes (1.22%). Rohani formerly served as the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and was Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator in the talks with Britain, France, and Germany between 2003 and 2005. Iran agreed to temporarily suspend uranium enrichment-related activities in 2004. During his campaign, Rohani, who is the director of the Strategic Research Center of Iran’s Expediency Council, vowed to set the country back on the path of moderation, help resolve the decade-old dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, take the measures necessary to have the sanctions lifted in order to boost the economy, and improve Iran’s relations with the outside world. “It is good to have centrifuges running, provided that people’s lives and livelihoods are also running,” Rohani, who has pledged to form a “government of prudence and hope,” said in a televised debate with the other candidates on June 7.