'Passionate participation': Iranians abroad flock to polls for snap election

A senior Iranian official overseeing the voting process abroad has praised Iranian expatriates for staging a “lively” participation in the country’s snap presidential election.

"In East Asia, the end of the voting [process] has been announced and the counting has been done,” Alireza Mahmoudi, director-general of consular affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said on Friday.

“We are happy that votes have been carefully guarded at Iran's diplomatic missions. In the media, some people had spread some news [to the contrary], but these news do not match our polling statistics at all,” he said.

“In Europe, the voting process is still going on and is being held well, despite some problems [certain elements] had caused,” he said.

“The presence of some troublemakers has been resolved by communicating with the police in these countries,” he added.

“Fortunately, we are witnessing that overseas Iranians are staging a lively participation in the election,” Mahmoudi said.

He added that in Iran’s “neighboring countries, especially in the Persian Gulf, we had a large number of voters.”

He noted that Iranian diplomatic missions in the Persian Gulf countries and Europe had added two hours to the voting.

“We are now continuing the election process in America,” he said.

"It makes us happy that we were able to make [necessary] preparations for polling stations so that all Iranians can come to the polls and vote,” said the official.

Mahmoudi hailed the police and relevant officials across foreign countries for providing “favorable security cooperation,” protecting the voting process against certain elements hassling Iranian voters.

As many as 250 polling stations have been allocated to members of the Iranian diaspora, who could seek to cast their ballots in the election.

Iran election abroad: Iranians living overseas ready to exercise their voting rights

As the Iranian nation braces for Friday’s snap presidential election, elaborate arrangements have been put in place both within the country and abroad to facilitate easy, hassle-free and secure polling.

The polls opened throughout the Islamic Republic and scores of other countries earlier in the day.

The election was called after President Ebrahim Raeisi was martyred along with seven others on May 19, when the helicopter carrying them crashed in northwestern Iran.

According to Mahmoudi, the votes cast overseas would be counted upon the conclusion of the electoral process and sent by the Foreign Ministry to the Interior Ministry, which is tasked with announcing the results.

He said the overseas electoral processes would last for 10 hours and could be extended at the discretion of the head of the Iranian diplomatic missions in the respective countries.

‘Canada-based Iranians vote on US border’

The official, meanwhile, said Iranians based in Canada, which has banned them from casting absentee votes in the election in a hostile move, could cast their ballots in the US border cities of Buffalo and Seattle.

Mahmoudi cited Malaysia, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Iraq, and elsewhere as the countries, where the expats had staged a robust turnout in the polls.

Domestic media outlets have, meanwhile, been abuzz with reports on the diaspora’s vigorous contribution to the electoral process.

In Iraq, Iranians flocked to 14 polling stations and 10 polling booths set up to serve expats and pilgrims.

Despite putting up initial opposition, Saudi Arabia has also reportedly agreed to allow Iranians, either those who are based in the kingdom or pilgrims, to participate in the presidential election.

Voting is also underway in Britain, which hosts the biggest number of polling stations allocated to Iranian voters, despite attempts at sabotage by some counter-revolutionary elements, who have been turning up at the polls, trying to trouble the electoral process.

In Oman, Iran’s Ambassador to Muscat Musa Farhang appreciated electoral participation by the Iranians, who are based in the Persian Gulf country, saying this reflected the expats’ interest in contributing to the Islamic Republic’s future.

Casting his ballot, Hossein Akbari, Iran’s envoy to Damascus, considered the taking place of the election to be a barometer of democracy in the Islamic Republic and a sign of people’s power. He added that Syria hosts around 12,000 Iranians, more than 6,000 among whom are eligible to vote.

Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow, Kazem Jalali hailed that the expats’ participation in the election had “witnessed an increase” compared to the previous polls, saying the Russian capital as well as the country’s cities of Saint Petersburg, Astrakhan, and Kazan were hosting polling stations allocated to Iranian voters.

Sweden also witnessed a dynamic electoral turnout on the part of the Iranian diaspora, who cast their ballots across polling stations based in the capital Stockholm and the city of Gothenburg.

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