Christian leader: Results of Iran's election to reduce regional crises

Head of the Catholicate of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I felicitated the Iranian nation on the election of Hassan Rouhani as the next president of the country, and said results of Iran's voting will decrease the regional crises. In a message delivered to Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Qazanfar Roknabadi, the head of the Holy Sea of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church described the high turnout of the Iranian nation in the election as a unique event in the world. He believed this showed the system in Iran is a purely democratic one based on the votes of people. Aram I said the results of the elections in Iran will significantly reduce the regional crises. Millions of Iranians on Friday went to the polling centers to vote in the country's 11th presidential and 4th city and village councils elections. Polling stations opened at 8 am (0330 GMT) Friday and were scheduled to close at 6:00 pm (1330 GMT) before the Interior Ministry was made to extend the voting hours for several times due to the large voter turnout. Polling was heavy since the very beginning. Reports from various media outlets said Friday morning that large numbers of people had queued behind closed doors before polling stations opened. Thousands of additional ballot papers were sent to various Iranian cities after local electoral authorities from different constituencies across the country asked the Interior Ministry to send them more papers due to the unexpectedly large public turnout. A number of 50,483,192 people were eligible to vote in the elections. 1.6 million youths came to be eligible to vote for the first time in their lives as the voting age in Iran is above 18 according to the law.The Interior Ministry's election headquarters said turnout among the electorate was 72.7 percent. Iran's Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced Saturday evening that from a total number of 36,704,156 ballots cast in Iran's 11th presidential election on Friday June 14, Rouhani won 18,613,329 votes while his main rival Mohammad Qalibaf could secure only 6,077,292 votes.