Reformist President Hassan Rouhani took the lead Saturday of Iran’s presidential elections preliminary results.
In a press conference, Ali Asghar Ahmadi, head of election committee said that Rouhani had 14.6 million votes, followed by Ebrahim Raisi who had 10.1 million votes.
According to Ahmadi, more than half of votes were counted out of total 40 million votes.
Iranians headed to the polls Friday to elect a new president and provincial council members. Voting began early in the day, with registered voters casting ballots at 63,000 polling centers countrywide.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged citizens to take part in the election, which pits incumbent reformist President Hassan Rouhani against three conservative candidates.