The Independent:

Iran’s voters have handed Hassan Rouhani an overwhelming victory in the country’s landmark election, giving the reformist President a renewed mandate for his policy of unshackling restrictions at home and forging links with the international community.

Mr Rouhani’s triumph was not only an emphatic endorsement of his modernist drive, but a ringing rejection of his hardline opponent Ebrahim Raisi who had claimed to champion the legacy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution.

The scale of Mr Raisi’s defeat, trailing 39.8 percent to 58.6 percent,with most votes counted,  meant that the conservatives had little room to claim that the result was manipulated. With a massive victory by the liberals in last year’s parliamentary election, President Rouhani now has the opportunity to push through domestic reforms who many claimed had been slow in coming.

The election mandate will also gives Mr Rouhani more  leverage with the outside world especially with deep concern over possible actions of Donald Trump. The US President had threatened to tear up the nuclear deal Iran had signed with world powers during the US election campaign and he is currently on trips to Saudi Arabia and Israel --- two countries who regard Iran as an enemy. Mr Trump is expected to make a speech in Riyadh which, it is claimed, will be highly belligerent towards Tehran.

The Iranian government believes that the other five states which signed the deal, including Britain, and have stressed that Iran is fulfilling its commitment, will be a buttress in preventing in preventing Mr Trump pushing back towards international isolation just as the country has shown its determination to engage with the outside world.

Mr Rouhani’s win was built on an exceptionally large turnout, which led to polling stations being kept open late into the evening, solidified votes for the President. His followers had stressed that getting the vote out would lead to victory for their man...

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