Former Iraqi PM praises lLeader's important role in Iran's successful election

Former Iraqi prime minister and head of the Iraqi National Alliance Ibrahim Jafari congratulated the Iranian nation on holding successful presidential election, and said Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei played a highly important role in that victory. "We are happy that the election in Iran was held honorably and successfully," Jafari said, addressing a ceremony at the Iranian mission in Baghdad. "It should be admitted that Ayatollah Khamenei, by means of his wisdom and insight, played a unique role in this success and in creating a political epic," he added. Millions of Iranians on June 14 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) 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 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 that from a total number of 36,704,156 ballots cast in Iran's 11th presidential election on Friday June 14, Hassan Rouhani won 18,613,329 votes and became Iran's next president.