Iran opens voting in presidential poll tipped in hard-liner’s favor

Iran has begun voting in a presidential election tipped in the favor of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Polls opened at 7 a.m. local time Friday for the vote.

Public apathy has been widespread after a panel under Khamenei barred hundreds of candidates, including reformists and those aligned with the outgoing president, the relatively moderate Hassan Rouhani.

State-linked opinion polling and analysts have put hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as the dominant front-runner among the four candidates.

Former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati is running as the moderate candidate but hasn’t inspired the same support as Rouhani.

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