Iran votes for new president amid boiling regional, domestic tensions | PICS

Iranians voted on Friday for a new president in the midst of escalating public frustration over economic hardship and regional tensions between Israel and Iran's allies - Hamas and Hezbollah.

The turnout in Friday's elections was very low, around 40 per cent, amid public discontent over restrictions on social and political freedom.

Just like previous elections, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from the ballot and international observers have also been banned.

A neck-to-neck contest has emerged as of Saturday, with sole moderate candidate Massoud Pezeshkian polling 5.9 million votes out of 14 million ballots counted as of 11 am IST.

Pezeshkian is in a tight race with hardline candidate Saeed Jalili (5.5 million votes), a former nuclear negotiator who is considered close to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Another prominent candidate is Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, parliament speaker and former commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, another hardline candidate.

The snap presidential elections were announced for June 28 in the wake of President Ebrahim Raisi's tragic death in a helicopter crash on May 19.

A hardline watchdog body of six clerics and six jurists is tasked with choosing the candidates for the presidential elections. Only six out of 80 candidates were nominated for the elections, and two of them later dropped out.

The next president is unlikely to bring a shift in the Islamic Republic's policies, as all crucial state matters are handled by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.