Iran’s election: By the numbers

Zero women out of the 40 who registered as candidates were approved to run for the presidency.

Women supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi hold pictures depicting him, during an election campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, 16 June 2021.
Supporters of Iranian presidential candidate Ebrahim Raisi hold images of him during an election campaign rally in Tehran on Wednesday [Abedin Bedin/EPA-EFE]

A look at some of the numbers that explain Iran’s upcoming presidential election:

• More than 59 million eligible voters in Iran, a nation home to more than 80 million people

• Seven presidential candidates approved by Iran’s Guardian Council to run out of 592 who registered, with three later dropping out

• Zero women out of the 40 who registered approved to run for the presidency

• Four-year term for an elected Iranian president

• Two terms in a row are the maximum any Iranian president can serve

• 42 percent turnout projected by the state-linked Iranian Students Polling Agency, which would be an historic low amid a lack of enthusiasm by voters and the coronavirus pandemic

• 73 percent turnout in Iran’s last presidential election in 2017

• More than 50 percent is the amount of the vote a frontrunner must win in order to avoid a runoff election – and there has only been one runoff, in 2005, since the 1979 Islamic Revolution

• Six seats will be filled by voters for Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which appoints the country’s supreme leader

• Six seats will be filled by voters for Iran’s parliament

• Nearly 200,000 seats on city and local councils across the country also will be selected by voters.

Source: Reuters