Out of a total of 9.8 million eligible voters, the province received 3.3 million votes. That equates to 26 percent, of which 11.86 percent were invalid ballots, the head of Tehran’s provincial election campaign and the deputy governor for social and political affairs, Shokrallah Hassan Beigi told semi-official ISNA news agency on Sunday.
The overall turnout at the republic stood at 48.8 percent, a record low in a presidential election since the Islamic Republic was established 42 years ago, AFP reported.
Out of the 29.3 million votes, 3.7 million were invalid, Iran’s Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli announced on Saturday, published by IRIB news.
Hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, 60, is officially Iran's next president, the final polling results were confirmed on Saturday. He is close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and will take over from the outgoing President Hassan Rouhani in August.
Apathy for the election was high among Iran’s nearly 60 million voters. The campaign failed to stir interest among voters, disillusioned under crippling sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and an all but certain outcome.
Although a range of prominent reformists and key Rouhani allies registered to run for president, Iran’s Guardian Council that vets candidates allowed just several low-profile candidates, mostly hard-liners, to run against Raisi.
Activists and civilians launched a boycott campaign on social media, attracting a lot of support, despite threats of prosecution. Videos were later shared on election day on June 18 of empty polling stations.
