Successive second victory for hassan roughani in the presidential elections of Iran

Tehran : In the Presidential elections conducted on Friday in Iran, existing President Hassan Rouhani has become victorious once again. Hassan Rouhani defeated Ebrahim Raisi, representating the orthodox and the hardliner group, with a big margin. It is being said that this victory of Mr. Rouhanis is being considered a victory of the reformist and a major setback to the hardliners and the ‘Revolutionary Guards’. Western communities have reacted positively to Rouhani’s win and expressed that all the nuclear agreements undertaken would be completed.

On Saturday morning, Iran’s Minister of Internal Defense, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli declared the election results.Accordingly, Hassan Rouhani received 2.35 crore votes while his opponent Raisi received 1.57 crore votes. In the election conducted on Friday, nearly 4 crore voters exercised their voting rights which could be considered a victorious event in Iran’s history. As per government sources, Rouhani received 57% of total votes.

After the results were declared, Raisi accused foul play in the election process. The accusation is that the supporters of Rouhani have been attempting to campaign at the election booths. However Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has thanked the people for the huge response in the election and also congratulated Rouhani.

This victory of the current President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani is considered to have brought in a great relief to the reformist group. Ebrahim Raisi who had served as a hardcore cleric and an Attorney General had tried to bring in all the radical groups together. Raisi has been known to be close to Khamenei , and was thus backed by the powerful ‘Revolutionary Guards’.

It was feared that had Raisi won the elections, he could have taken an aggressive role and created conflicts in the international community, or throttled the human rights in Iran. However President Rouhani, in the final stages of his election campaign based his points on human rights and the negative use of religion and managed to create a public opinion against Raisi. It is said that Raisi suffered a major setback due to his participation in the execution of thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s.

There is an expectation that Rouhani’s victory should bring about an improvement in relations between Iran and the Western countries. However some analysts have indicated that the traditional hardliners in Iran with the support of Iranian Army could create obstacles for Rouhani.