When Iran's ageing supreme leader is urging citizens to get out and vote, you can only guess that what's really at stake is turnout. We ask if there's more than meets the eye to a heavily-vetted presidential contest precipitated by last month's death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash.
To stop Iran's sliding abstention rate, this time organisers allowed a candidate billed as a reformist to stand alongside five hardliners. They include regime heavyweights, each of whom – in the land that invented chess – has his own agenda and strategy.
So what kind of a snapshot will Friday's vote offer for an under-sanctions regime that's for now put a lid on the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests of 2022 and cosied up to sometimes rival Russia? How far does the showdown go with an Israel whose leadership wants to dial up the fighting with proxy militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, and a US that is – at least until that other election in November – trying to keep a lid on it all?
Produced by Alessandro Xenos, Elena Colonna, Rebecca Gnignati and Juliette Brown.
