Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei casts vote in the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran May 19, 2017. Iran held the presidential election on Friday. (Xinhua/Meng Tao)
TEHRAN, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Iran's presidential election began on Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. local time (0330 GMT) as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his vote in the ballot box.
Khamenei urged the Iranians to go to the polling stations for the vote at the earliest time.
The election of the president is important in the Islamic republic and the people should take note of this point, Khamenei said in a live TV broadcast.
He also hailed the elections as the sign of democracy in Iran.
Concurrently, Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli officially announced the beginning of the presidential elections nationwide.
Iranian incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, also a candidate, cast his vote in a ballot box in Tehran's Hosseinieh Ershad on Friday morning.
Over 60,000 ballot boxes have been prepared nationwide to receive votes.
Some 56 million Iranians are eligible for voting, and will choose the next president for a four-year term from among the four candidates.
On Thursday, Iranian Interior Ministry officially announced the names of incumbent Hassan Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, Mostafa Agha-Mirsalim and Mostafa Hashemi Taba as the four hopefuls for the Friday presidential election.
On April 21, out of 1,636 registered candidates, six qualified to compete for the four-year presidential term, including three principalists, better known as conservatives, as well as two centrists and one reformist.
On Tuesday, Iran's reformist Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri announced his withdrawal from the race in order to back incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, urging all his supporters to vote for Rouhani.
Tehran's Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, a conservative candidate, said in a statement on Monday that he withdrew from the presidential race to back Raisi.
