TEHRAN 

Voting in Iran’s presidential runoff election was extended until 10 p.m. local time (16:30 GMT) on Friday, the country’s election headquarters announced.

Speaking to media persons in Tehran, Mohsen Eslami, the spokesperson for election headquarters said the request for an extension in the voting period was approved by the interior minister.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (04:30 GMT) and were supposed to close at 6 p.m. according to the constitutional norm of the 10-hour voting process.

In the June 28, snap presidential election, voting was extended thrice and ended at midnight, but voter turnout was still at 40%, the lowest since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Two candidates – a reformist lawmaker and former Health Minister Masoud Pezeshkian, and a conservative former lead nuclear negotiator and head of the security body Saeed Jalili – are vying for the presidency after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a chopper crash in May.

Pezeshkian and Jalili secured the most number of votes out of four candidates in the June 28 snap presidential election, but fell short of the 50% plus one mark required for an outright win.

Around 61 million people are eligible to vote in this year's election, according to official data. In the 2021 election, 59.3 million people were registered to vote.

A total of 58,640 polling stations have been set up across the country to facilitate the voting process, similar to the previous round, with more than 6,000 of them in Tehran alone.

Counting of ballots will start immediately after the voting lines close, and the Interior Ministry will announce results in phases until the final results are declared on Saturday morning.