Rohani takes big lead in Iran’s presidential election so far

Candidate Hassan Rohani is in the lead with a wide margin in the Iranian presidential election, according to the results so far.

Officials at the Election Headquarters of the Iranian Interior Ministry announced on Saturday that 8,050,738 valid ballots – from a total of 8,319,768 ballots – have been counted at 14,603 polling stations so far (10:30 am Tehran time).

Following are the vote totals from the early results:

Hassan Rohani: 4,125,032

Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf: 1,341,947

Saeed Jalili: 1,056,327

Mohsen Rezaei: 902,121

Ali Akbar Velayati: 521,097

Mohammad Gharazi: 104,214

On Friday, millions of Iranian voters headed for polling stations to cast their ballots and choose the country’s 11th president as well as their representatives in the city and village councils.

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

If a candidate wins over fifty percent of the vote in the first round of the Iranian presidential election, he will replace incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Otherwise, a run-off will be held in a week’s time to determine a final winner.