IRNA � The Iranian presidential election started at 8am local time in China, Japan, and South Korea on Friday.


 

The Iranians residing in the three East Asian nations went to the polling stations established at the Iranian missions to cast their ballots.

The Iranian missions in Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, Japan; Shanghai, Kwangju, and Hong Kong, China host presidential ballot boxes for the Islamic Republic�s twelfth presidential elections.

Voting stations opened in Iran at 8am local time (03:30 GMT) on Friday for the 12th presidential and the fifth city and village council elections in about 63,500 polling stations.

For the presidential competition, the candidates are incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, the Custodian of Imam Reza (AS) Holy Shrine Ebrahim Raeisi and former minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mostafa Aqa Mirsalim and former Minister of Physical Education Mostafa Hashemi Taba.

First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri and Mayor of Tehran, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf were the two presidential candidates who quitted the presidential race to support their favorite candidates (Rouhani and Raeisi respectively).

Polling stations are open from 8am until 6pm local time (3:30am to 1:30pm GMT) although authorities have announced that the country's 63,500 polling stations could extend their voting time if necessary.

Over 56 million Iranians are eligible to vote in Iran's 12th presidential elections, according to the Election Headquarters of the Interior Ministry.

Out of the total eligible voters, over 1.3 million are those who vote for the first time and some two million and 500 thousand live outside Iran and can vote in 102 countries.

Some 66.7 percent of respondents to a survey carried out by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on May 7-8 said they will participate in Iran�s May 19 presidential elections.

If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of votes cast, the top two candidates will compete in a runoff election on May 26.