Iran election deadline extended for 4th time to 2300 local time

Voting deadline for Iran’s 11th presidential as well as the fourth city and village councils elections has been extended four times, each time for one more hour, due to massive voter turnout.

In the fourth extension of the voting time, the Iranian Interior Ministry has extended the deadline to 2300 local time (1830 GMT).

The ministry said in a statement that voters can continue to cast their ballots until 2300 local time on Friday, five hours beyond the initial 10-hour deadline.

Head of the Election Committee of Tehran Province Safarali Baratlou said the voter turnout in the Friday elections is predicted to hit 70 percent in Tehran Province. Extra ballots are also being sent to the province’s polling stations.

Polls officially opened across Iran at 8:00 a.m. (0330 GMT) and were originally scheduled to end at 6 p.m. (1330 GMT).

The country’s Election Headquarters, meanwhile, said there had been no report of major irregularities from the polling stations, where representatives of the candidates have been stationed for more transparency.

Nearly 50.5 million Iranians, including more than 1.6 million first-time voters, are eligible to vote in the June 14 elections.

President of the Expediency Council’s Center for Strategic Research Hassan Rohani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili, Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, and former Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Gharazi are the six candidates running in the presidential election.

Over 200,000 candidates are also running for city and rural councils elections.