TEHRAN, Iran �� Hassan Rouhani won a second term as president of Iran in a landslide victory considered an endorsement of his efforts to lead the nation out of isolation through its nuclear deal with world powers.
Rouhani won 57 percent of ballots cast, Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli said at a news conference in Tehran. Rouhani's chief rival Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line conservative cleric perceived as the favored candidate of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, won 38.5 percent. More than 41 million of 56 million eligible voters cast ballots.
The result strengthens Rouhani's domestic mandate to integrate Iran with the global economy. Yet the extent of his success will depend on the cooperation of the Iran's conservative establishment, led by Khamenei, who was widely seen as supporting Raisi during the campaign. It will also depend on actions taken by U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrived on Saturday in Saudi Arabia for talks expected to focus on ways to contain Iran's regional influence.
Rouhani sealed his victory after an often bitter campaign that laid bare the deep divides in Iranian society. Pre-election polls showed the moderate cleric with widespread support in urban centers, where Iranians supported his efforts to deliver more social freedoms and trade a pared-back nuclear program for an easing of economic sanctions.
Raisi was popular among the working class and rural poor who rely on state support and benefited less from the 2015 nuclear deal. A Raisi victory would have been viewed as swinging Iran back to a hard-line conservatism hostile to the West.
Many had predicted a tight race as Rouhani, first elected in 2013, brought his mixed record before the Iranian people. The lifting of some sanctions has brought billions of dollars of frozen funds into the country, but while companies have been eager to do business with Iran, fear of running afoul of remaining U.S. sanctions has restricted investment.
Monthly inflation has been tamed to less than 8 percent from above 40 percent, and the International Monetary Fund expects Iran's economy to grow 3.3 percent this year after contracting 6.8 percent in 2013. Rouhani hewed to fiscal prudence, promoted banking reform and engaged with foreign companies in an attempt to revitalize an economy isolated from much of the world during a decade of sanctions.
Still, a combination of lower oil prices, reduced state subsidies and the Central Bank of Iran's tight monetary policy together have kept poorer Iranians from any improvement in their standard of living. Unemployment under Rouhani has increased to 10 percent to 12.7 percent over the past four years, according to official figures.
Rouhani's record on loosening restrictions on cultural and social activities has also been spotty as he tests how far he can push boundaries zealously guarded by hard-liner. While there has been a revival in the arts and cafe life in Tehran and other cities, concerts were banned in Mashad, Iran's second-largest and holiest city, after a prayer leader demanded that they stop.
Meanwhile, Iran has become more involved in conflicts throughout the Middle East in a widening confrontation with Saudi Arabia, as the region's Shiite and Sunni powers compete for influence in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen. Rouhani will also continue to face a tougher Trump, who has pronounced the nuclear pact a "disaster" and imposed new punishments over Iran's missile program before the election.
