From the outset when the counting of the votes started after midnight in Iran, the early results indicated that President Hassan Rouhani was heading for a landslide.
Even in small rural towns many people preferred the vision that he had put forward, a vision in sharp contrast to the inward looking, traditional and hardline Islamic government promised by his main challenger, Ebrahim Raissi.
President Rouhani won 23.5 million votes, or 57%. Turnout was unprecedented – nearly 41 million people voted, or 73.5% of the eligible voters. In Tehran, more than five million people came out to vote, twice the number of 2013.
One reason for this high turnout was the reports that the hardliners had pulled out all the stops and mobilised their resources to bring out as many of their supporters as possible to vote, a major push to oust President Rouhani. These reports spurred his supporters and all those who favoured moderation or opposed the hardliners to come out in big numbers.
President Rouhani’s victory means a major defeat for the hardliners. The vote may indicate that they will never be able to take control of the executive branch through the ballot box, as a big majority of Iranians do not favour them or their vision.
In his first televised message after the victory he had said No to returning to the past. He was echoing his election campaign motto “We will not go back,” a reference to his hard-line opponents and their “backward” policies.
Image copyrightAFPImage captionSupporters of President Rouhani celebrated in downtown Tehran
Friday’s vote in Iran was the revenge of the moderates. A rejection of those who had intimidated them, jailed them, executed them, drove them to exile, pushed them out of their jobs.
In his campaign, President Rouhani promised to put an end to extremism, to open up the political atmosphere, to extend individual and political rights, to free political prisoners, to remove decimations against women and bring under control all those state institutions that are not accountable.
To keep and act on these promises, he told his supporters he needed a big mandate, bigger than before.
He firmly placed himself in the camp of the reformists. Now, with his re-election, Iran is on the path towards change, with a renewed confidence drawn from the emphatic result.