Iran hardliners fight to ensure Ebrahim Raisi wins presidential election

Polls predict low voter turnout over Iranian regime's efforts to engineer result

Iran's hardline rulers are battling to ensure not only their preferred candidate, the head of the judiciary, Ebrahim Raisi, wins Saturday's presidential election, but also that the electoral system that puts him into power retains a veneer of credibility with ordinary Iranians.

Polls are predicting a turnout as low as 40%, down from the previous 73% in 2017, partly because the Iranian regime has gone further than ever to engineer the result. Even so the regime is nervous since the compressed three-week campaign has, on at least three previous occasions, led to sudden late mood swings.