Iran’s election watchdog on May 31 certified President Hassan Rouhani's re-election as fair, dismissing voter fraud allegations raised by defeated hardline candidate Ebrahim Raisi, state media reported on May 31.
Rouhani and his team had immediately dismissed allegations centred on polling stations in conservative constituencies running out of ballot papers. They suggested Raisi was attempting to generate a controversy akin to that which followed the 2009 re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when reformist candidate Mirhossein Mousavi - who is to this day under house arrest - raised allegations of widespread ballot box corruption, sparking massive street protests by his supporters.
"The Guardian Council confirmed today in a letter the results of the 12th presidential election in Iran," Salman Samani, an interior ministry spokesperson, was quoted as saying by state media outlets.
Centrist and pragmatist Rouhani secured his second term in office in the May 19 election by winning more than 57% of cast votes to religious judge Raisi’s 38%. There was a high turnout of around 73%.
With an increasing amount of mud being thrown by candidates in the TV debates ahead of election day, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei repeatedly warned candidates not to embarrass themselves and show up the Islamic Republic in front of international media.
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