Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Despite recent predictions, the reformist candidate in the Iran's presidential elections, Hassan Rohani is a clear lead over the conservative candidates. The counting of the votes has been going on all night with more than 20% of the ballots counted, Rohani has reached and exceeded the 50% threshold. If this data is confirmed there will be no run-off.
At the moment Rohani - who promised to rebuild Iran's relations with the international community and open up to softer domestic policies - has more than 3.2 million votes of the 6.3 million valid ballots. He is followed by the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who got little more than a million votes. In third place the "hawk" and current chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, with 868 thousand votes.
If the result is confirmed, Rohani - who is supported by the former reformist presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami - will have triumphed mobilizing an electorate still disappointed by the strong repression of the protests and allegations of vote rigging after the presidential election of 2009.
Rohani, 64, led the negotiations on the controversial nuclear program of Iran under President Khatami and during his tenure the Islamic Republic agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, which was later restarted when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president for his first term, in 2005.
The Supreme Leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Twitter: "A vote for anyone of these candidates is a vote for the Islamic Republic and a vote of confidence in the system." The ayatollah, who has absolute power in the theocratic Shiite regime, was not in favor of any one candidate.