Baku, Azerbaijan, May 19
By Fatih Karimov – Trend:
At least 100 people were arrested in Iran’s Tehran Province on May 19 for election-related offences, Gholam Hossein Esmaili, head of Tehran Province Justice Department, said.
The arrested people are mostly charged with various election-related crimes, including “ballot trade” in various polling stations, Esmaili said, Tasnim news agency reported May 19.
Most of the offences are related to the city and village councils elections, but there are also cases relating to the presidential polls too, he added.
The elections in Iran started on May 19 at 8:00 local time. There are about 56 million eligible Iranians and they can vote at one of 63,500 polling stations across the country.
Elections have been extended for second time until 22:00 local time (GMT +4:30) due to high turnout.
Reportedly, so far over 30 million Iranians have voted in election, which means about a 53 percent turnout.
There are four candidates seeking presidency in the polls, including incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, Mostafa Hashemitaba, and Mostafa Aqa-Mirsalim.