According to the IRNA correspondent in Moscow, due to the incessant presence of the fellow Iranian citizens in the queues leading to the election polls, the voting hours in Moscow, Sian Petersburg, and Kazan were extended till 8 p.m.
The elections started at 8:00 a.m., Friday, June 18, 2021, and were initially scheduled to end at 6 pm.
Iran’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation Kazem Jalali while appreciating the executive officials for sponsoring these elections, as well as the Iranian citizens residing in Russia for their epic and dynamic presence at the polls, reiterated that the Iranians residing in Moscow on Friday, June 18, had and epic and dynamic presence at the election polls, side by side with the Iranians living in Iran.
“Dozens of Iranians residing in this county, including university students, merchants, businessmen, and their families in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, and Astrakhan alertly attended the historical, unforgettable, and pride-inspiring and glorious elections, and created a new page in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s history,” he added.
Further, focusing on the extent of presence of the Iranians residing in Russia at the election polls, Jalali said, "In Russia, we had arranged four election stations in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan, and Astrakhan, in all of which, especially the one in Moscow, our dear fellow citizens had an epic presence."
He said that although the Iranian university students and merchants residing in Russia are now due to the Corona pandemic restrictions, like their fellow citizens in Iran faced with certain limitations, but the level of their participation in Iran and abroad were quite huge and satisfactory.
“The Iranians abroad showed with their presence at the voting polls that they not only support the Islamic Republic of Iran but also their country’s independence,” Jalali noted.
The Iranian ambassador also said that despite the tremendous efforts made by certain Western powers for decreasing the number of people’s presence at these elections, the Iranian nation decided independently to have an epic presence at the polls and not to permit the foreigners to decide their fate.
The 13th presidential election was held simultaneous with the sixth round of city and village councils elections, the first mid-term for the 11th parliament’s by-election, and the second mid-term for the fifth Assembly of Experts election on Friday.
Presidential candidates include Expediency Discernment Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei Mirqaed, Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi, MP Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, and former Governor of the Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati. Saeed Jalili, Mohsen Mehralizadeh, and Alireza Zakani, three other presidential candidates, dropped out of the presidential race.
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