Ebrahim Raisi-a hardliner has won Iran’s presidential election in a race that was widely seen as being designed to favour him.
- He secured 62 per cent of the votes.
- Ebrahim Raisi is Iran’s top judge and holds ultra-conservative views. He is under US sanctions and has been linked to past executions of political prisoners.
- Iran is run according to conservative Shia Islamic values, and there have been curbs on political freedoms since its Islamic Revolution in 1979.
- Almost 600 hopefuls had registered to be candidates in the presidential election. But in the end only seven men were approved by the 12 jurists and theologians on the Guardian Council, a body that has the ultimate decision with regard to candidates’ qualifications.