United States Agency for Global Media

Presidential elections in Iran

May 17, 2017

Iranian voters go to the polls on Friday, May 19 for the country’s first presidential elections since the landmark nuclear agreement in 2015.

The outcome of the election—which features incumbent President Hassan Rouhani and a range of hardline candidates led by longtime prosecutor Ibrahim Raisi—will either reaffirm Rouhani’s relatively moderate leadership or render him the first one-term president since Iran’s 1979 revolution.

The election comes at a critical time for Iran and could have serious implications for the future of the country and its relationship with the West. The nuclear deal that reshaped Iran’s relations with much of the international community, Tehran’s involvement in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the political process in Iraq, and the fight against ISIS are all foreign policy issues that have figured prominently in the campaign.

RFE/RL’s Iranian Service, Radio Farda, has been providing audiences in Iran with comprehensive coverage of the election campaign, including informed analysis of the issues, daily reporting on all three presidential debates, fact-checking of candidate’s claims, coverage of campaign attacks and counterattacks, and engagement with voters to gauge and report people’s reactions.

RFE/RL experts are available for comment before, during and after the polls:

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