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Iran's interior minister said President Hassan Rohani -- seen casting his ballot on May 19 -- won reelection with around 57 percent of the vote, easily avoiding a runoff.
Iran's interior minister said President Hassan Rohani -- seen casting his ballot on May 19 -- won reelection with around 57 percent of the vote, easily avoiding a runoff.

Live Blog: Rohani Declared Winner Of Iran Vote

Updated

-- Iranian officials have declared President Hassan Rohani winner of the May 19 vote with around 57 percent of ballots, easily avoiding a runoff against conservative former prosecutor Ebrahim Raisi, who was said to have received about 38.5 percent of votes cast.

-- In a victory speech, Rohani said the Iranian people were the "real victors" of the election and that Iran had chosen "engagement with the world" in voting for him, rejecting extremism. But as Rohani knows very well, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei holds ultimate political, military, and religious power in Iran, and can easily derail a campaign or thwart the plans of a president.

-- Six men were approved to run by the Guardians Council from more than 1,600 applicants, but it quickly boiled down to a two-man race between Raisi and Rohani, an establishment veteran who oversaw a breakthrough nuclear deal with world powers to ease sanctions and pushed for engagement with the West and greater openness for Iranians.

-- Raisi has long been talked about as a possible successor to Khamenei, and it's unclear what effect a landslide loss might have on his political ambitions.

*NOTE: Times are stated according to local time in Tehran (GMT +4 1/2)

13:40 20.5.2017

Reaction from Haaretz world news editor:

13:35 20.5.2017

Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated President Rohani on his victory in the May 19 vote.

12:49 20.5.2017

A reference to Ebrahim Raisi's role in the executions after summary trials of thousands of regime opponents in the 1980s:

12:45 20.5.2017

12:35 20.5.2017

Iranians are poking fun at Raisi, who before the vote met with controversial rapper Tataloo, who has 4 million followers on Instagram:

12:33 20.5.2017

Hassan Rohani says on Twitter that the Iranian people are "the real winner" of the presidential vote:

11:42 20.5.2017

Good point:

11:42 20.5.2017

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has congratulated Rohani on his reelection, the hard-line Fars news agency reports.

Tehran, long Damascus's staunchest ally, has sent senior military advisers and thousands of "volunteers" to help Assad's regime battle armed opposition fighters and an array of other anti-regime forces since fighting broke out in Syria in 2011. Iran has also even allowed the use of its military facilities to Russian warplanes conducting bombing raids in Syria to prop up Assad.

11:24 20.5.2017

Some thoughts from Iran analyst Suzanne Maloney:

11:22 20.5.2017

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei congratulated Iranian people on the high turnout.

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