About 67% of Iranians to vote in presidential elections: Polls

EghtesadOnline: Some 66.7 percent of respondents to a survey carried out by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on May 7-8 said they will participate in Iran’s May 19 presidential elections.

News ID: ۷۴۱۵۱۶

15 May 2017

The survey was carried out randomly asking 6,089 persons from 31 provinces to fill answer sheets, according to IRNA.

A sum of 16.2 percent of the respondents said they have not decided yet whether to participate in the voting or no.

Comparing IRNA previous survey conducted on May 1-2, the new polls shows a three percent increase in number of people who have decided to cast vote.

According to the previous survey, 63.9 percent of respondents said they will cast their votes on Iran’s forthcoming Elections.

Asked about their political inclinations, 27.8 percent of the respondents said their views are closer to reformists while 23.3 percent said they are closer to principlists and 14 percent said that they prefer to support the moderates.

Some 20.7% of the respondents said their views are not close to any of the existing political parties and 14.2% others said they had no information about the political groupings in the country.

Moreover, 63.4 percent of the respondents said they had already selected their candidate while 36.6 percent said they were still waiting to hear the plans of the candidates in their presidential campaign to decide about their final choice.

Ebrahim Raeisi, custodian of Imam Reza (AS) holy shrine, Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, former minister of culture and Islamic guidance Mostafa Mirsalim and former minister of physical education Mostafa Hashemi Taba, as well as President Hassan Rouhani are the six candidates to run for presidency in the forthcoming presidential elections.

After the 1979 Islamic Revolution which led to the fall of the Pahlavi regime, Iran has held one election each year on average, all of which have witnessed large turnout of the people.

Over 56 million Iranians are eligible to vote in Iran's 12th presidential elections, according to Ali Asghar Ahmadi, head of the Election Headquarters of the Interior Ministry.