(ANSA) - TEHRAN, June 20 - In Tehran as many as 74% of voters deserted the polls on Friday in the presidential elections which saw the winner of the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi after the exclusion by the Guardians Council of all the major reformist and conservative rivals.
This was reported by the electoral headquarters.
Meanwhile, the controversy arises over the national level of a shareholding of 48.8%, officially announced yesterday by the Ministry of the Interior. The daily reformist Etemad states that, by including in the calculations the high percentage of blank and null ballots - almost 13% - the percentage of participation would be 43%, practically equal to that recorded last year for the parliamentary elections which marked the historical low in a consultation since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
The objections to the counts coming from the conservative front are of opposite sign. The Tasnim agency, for example, claims that participation was actually over 50%.
Another reformist newspaper, Arman-e Melli, invites Raisi to work to earn the trust of even "the 70% who did not vote, voted for (the moderate candidate) Hemmati or voted blank or nothing". "Now it's your turn - writes Aftab-e Yazd, also a reformist, addressing the president-elect -. Restore the confidence of those who voted or did not vote". (HANDLE).