Voting starts for Iran's 14th presidential election

 June 28 (IANS) Voting for Iran's 14th presidential election started on Friday, months after President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash last month. "We start the elections" for the country's 14th presidential elections, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in a televised address. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei cast the first ballot at a polling station and made a brief speech calling for the unity of the Iranian people during the election, reports Xinhua news agency. The voting will be held at close to 59,000 polling stations in more than 95 states, and over 61 million people are eligible to vote in the election, according to authorities. Iran's 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following Raisi's unexpected death. Initially, six candidates -- Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the current Vice President; Alireza Zakani, the Mayor of Tehran; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Parliamentary Speaker; Saeed Jalili, the former top negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior Minister and Justice Minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Health Minister -- were qualified to enter the race. Later, Hashemi and Zakani, two principlist candidates, withdrew from the race in favour of Qalibaf and Jalili, who were also in the principlists' camp. --