Sun Jun 16, 2013 22:26:47
Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Araqchi says the massive voter turnout in the June 14 election will improve Iran’s regional and international standing.
On Sunday, Araqchi congratulated president-elect Hassan Rohani on his landmark victory in the June 14 election, which was marked by high voter turnout. Rohani won 50.7 percent of a total of 36,704,156 ballots counted.
Nearly 50.5 million Iranians, including more than 1.6 million first-time voters, were eligible to participate in the presidential, and city and village council elections. The Interior Ministry put the voter turnout at 72.7 percent.
“What we witnessed on Friday was in fact the power and might of the Islamic Republic of Iran which was put on display for the world … in the form of active political participation and lively presence of the people,” the Iranian spokesperson said.
This popular support and broad-based democracy would improve Iran’s standing on regional and international levels and would be a very strong source of energy for the Islamic Republic’s foreign policy, he added.
He further stated that congratulatory messages by officials of different countries to the president-elect show Tehran’s extensive relations with other countries and once again underline the Islamic Republic’s legitimacy in the region and across the world.
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