Iran's presidential election ended on Friday after voting was extended several times to allow millions of eligible voters to cast their ballots.
The country is looking to elect a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in the north-west of the country in May, alongside the foreign minister and several other officials.
The election is largely viewed as a three-way contest between two hardline candidates, former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who advocates a revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and global powers.
The only other candidate in the race is hardliner Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former justice minister and interior minister. Two other hardline candidates – Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, vice president under Mr Raisi, and Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani – withdrew from the contest on Thursday.
A source close to the sole moderate candidate, Massoud Pezeshkian, said, "So far, from the votes counted in small towns and villages, Pezeshkian has got around 3 million votes."
Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who will oversee the election, said all polling stations opened at 8am local time.
Polling ended at midnight in Iran after being extended three times for a total of six hours. Authorities said the initial result will be announced on Saturday.
The country's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, usually one of the first people to vote, called for a high turnout after casting his ballot at a polling station in Tehran.
“The durability, strength, dignity and reputation of the Islamic Republic depend on the presence of people,” Mr Khamenei told state television. “High turnout is a definite necessity.”
Voter turnout has plunged in elections held over the past four years, creating a crisis of legitimacy for Iran's rulers amid public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedom.
Iranians have made wide use of the hashtag #ElectionCircus on X in recent weeks, with some activists at home and abroad calling for an election boycott, saying a high turnout would legitimise the hardline regime.
The presidential election comes at a time of heightened regional tensions over Israel's war in Gaza with Hamas after the Iran-backed Palestinian group killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel on October 7.
The war triggered an escalating exchange of cross-border strikes between the Iran-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon and the Israeli military, and attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea by Yemen's Iran-allied Houthi rebels.
One of the main topics in presidential debates leading up to the election was Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with global powers, which collapsed after the US withdrew in 2018. Talks to revive the agreement, which placed curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, have failed to achieve progress.
The contentious issue of the compulsory head covering for women also emerged during the campaign, almost two years since a protest movement swept the country after the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman arrested after wearing her hijab “inappropriately”.
“I did not watch any of the debates since I have no plan to vote,” Fatemeh Jazayeri, 27, an unemployed woman with a master’s degree, told AFP. “I voted for [former president Hassan] Rouhani seven years ago, but he failed to deliver his promises for a better economy. Any promise by any candidates will remain on paper only.”
While Mr Khamenei, 85, is the ultimate authority in all state affairs, the presidency has significant influence in Iran's dealings with the West, either steering it towards confrontation or diplomacy.
More than 61 million Iranians over 18 were eligible to vote in Friday's election. About 18 million are aged between 18 and 30.
Polls closed shortly after midnight, following three extensions of voting hours. Iranian state media said those who were still waiting at the polling stations would be allowed to cast their ballots, but no one else.
Manual counting of ballots means the final result is expected to be announced in only two days.
Iranian law requires a candidate to receive more than 50 per cent of the vote to win. If none of the candidates cross that threshold, the top two advance to a run-off a week later.
There has been only one presidential election run-off in Iran's history. That came in 2005, when hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
– Agencies contributed to this report
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Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
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“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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