Vladimir Putin was the first world leader to congratulate Ebrahim Raisi, the ultra-conservative winner of the Iranian election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a congratulatory message to Iranian President-elect Ebrahim Raisi. “We confirm delivery of the message”, said a spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in Tehran, Maxime Souslov, as reported by the official Russian news agency, Sputnik. Souslov also voiced the Russia’s hope to deepen bilateral relations in various fields.

Raisi, until then head of Iranian justice, leads by a large difference the first official results of the presidential elections on Friday and has already started to receive congratulations from his predecessor and his rivals. All the predictions gave the winner to the powerful cleric, a great representative of the conservative Iranian establishment.

For now, the spokesperson for the National Election Commission of Iran, Yamal Arf, confirmed that Raisi leads by far in first official estimates, with 17.8 million votes received, far ahead of Mohsen Rezaei (3.3 million votes), Abdolnaser Hemati (2.4 million) and Amirhosein Qazizadé Hashemi, who would have garnered nearly a million votes, according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

In the absence of definitive data, which could be released throughout Saturday or, more likely, Sunday, Raisi already received congratulations from the rest of the candidates early on Saturday: Hemati, Hashemi and Rezaei, according to the Iranian semi-official agency Fars.

“. The noble and proud people of Iran rightly hope to live a life filled with hope, peace and prosperity. “Hemati said, according to information processed by the news portal Chabar, in comments collected by Fars.

Outgoing Iranian President Hasan Rouhani has already met Raisi to congratulate him on a victory that the president had already predicted early this morning, without giving the name. “It is clear who got the necessary votes”, as reported during its weekly monitoring meeting on the coronavirus pandemic, cited by the same agency.

Shortly thereafter, the IRNA agency released an image of Rohani and Raisi during a meeting between the two in which the outgoing president congratulated him on his electoral victory, to which only the official header remains.

“President Rouhani came to Raisi’s office and congratulated him on his victory in the presidential elections.”, published the spokesperson for the presidency, Alireza Moezi, on his Twitter account.

The total of votes received so far is 28.6 million, about 50 percent of the population trained to vote in an election where the turnout is also being considered as an indication of the acceptance of the Iranian clerical establishment that rules the country.

Raisi, who spent most of his career in the judiciary, became custodian of the Astan Quds Razavi religious foundation, the largest in the Islamic world, which makes him accumulate great power and even appear as the main favorite to succeed the great Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the head of the country.

The cleric, who was defeated by Rouhani in 2017, was named in 2019 as head of the judiciary and shortly after being appointed vice-president of the Assembly of Experts, which allowed him to increase his influence.

Raisi, 60, was one of the big favorites in this election due to the lack of real competition after his main opponents were disqualified. The campaign was bland, against a backdrop of general unrest among citizens over the crisis in this country rich in hydrocarbons, but subject to US sanctions.

(With information from Europa Press)

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