Iran voting begins with four candidates vying for presidency

CGTN Europe

Elections are under way in Iran with voters deciding on a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi who died in a helicopter crash last month.    Correspondent Adel Mahrouky on the latest in Tehran.  #iran #elections

Transcript

00:00Just three hours ago, the latest figures, official figures about the turnout was around 15 percent,

00:07which implies that most probably the deadline for closing the ballot stations, which is about

00:14two hours from now, will be extended. And this is a usual practice in the Iranian presidential

00:19election. It will stretch to midnight local time. That's about six hours extra from now

00:26of voting. Just to push it up, this comes as the Iranian supreme leader gave a speech in the

00:33morning right after he cast his ballot, urging all Iranians, whoever they're supporting, to turn out

00:39in this presidential election. Turnout is key for the Iranian elections because in the past years,

00:44it has been on continuous decline. The latest legislative election saw turnout last March,

00:50about 41 percent. And the previous presidential elections have seen 49 percent, 70 and 76 percent

00:57as we go farther away in time. So basically, Iran has a challenge to engage the youth into its

01:04elections specifically because the youth compile about 30 percent of the eligible voters.

01:11And tell me, what are the big issues in Iran?

01:14Economy. That's basically whoever we talk to, whoever they support in terms of presidential

01:20candidates, their concern is the economy. Because of the U.S.-led sanctions on Iran,

01:25Western sanctions in general, the economy has been struggling, despite this is an oil-rich

01:31nation. They have a surplus in their trade balance. But because of the ongoing sanctions,

01:37the cost of living has been tremendously high. Inflation has been tremendously high.

01:42Has been tremendously high. Inflation has been a record 40 percent throughout the last year alone

01:47and has been on continuous rise for the past few years as well. So people here are economically

01:55challenged. They need better living conditions. About 65,000 Iranians migrate from the country

02:02every year. These are people with highly educated university degrees and postgraduate studies. So

02:08this is like a kind of a brain drain because of the ongoing struggle in the economy. So this is

02:13what all and most of the debates have been focused on, how to repair, how to fix the economy, how to

02:19move in two tracks, to continue the nuclear talks with the United States so that sanctions can be

02:24lift and also to find another track where the economy can flourish away from the Western sanctions.

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