Free, fair and impartial elections has proved beyond doubt that Iran is the only democratic country in West Asia where people are ruling supreme making and unmaking Government by using their power of ballot.  Mr. Ibrahim Raisi, a nominee of the powerful institution of clerics and the mighty security establishment, stood defeated in the Friday’s Presidential elections against incumbent President Hassan Rouhani with a big margin of popular votes. Hassan Rouhani polled around 57 percent votes while his opponent Ibrahim Raisi got 38 percent vote. Two other candidates secured one percent or less votes in the elections.

The voter turnout was very impressive and massive by all the democratic standards of South Asia where more frequent parliamentary elections are held. More than 70 percent people had exercised their right of franchise.

There were no charges of rigging, tampering with the ballot boxes, buying and selling of votes and with no armed hooligans and disorderly people attacking the polling stations in this huge country spread over to more than 1.2 million square kilometers or equal to Xingjian region of China. On the contrary, in one of our NA constituencies in Lahore, candidates spent more than Rs four billion to win a more prestigious NA seat by the ruling party. The Opposition PTI too spent a huge amount matching the lavish spending of ruling Muslim League. A sitting Minister in Tamil Nado was caught while trying to buy votes in the local elections.

He is in jail to this date. Tampering with the polling process and rigging the elections is common in South Asia. But in Iran more free and fair elections were held and in a peaceful atmosphere.

Hassan Rouhani won the election as he enjoyed the massive support of the people which was clearly visible in his projection meetings before the elections.

Friday’s Presidential elections were important in the context of local politics as Mr. Rouhani was considered as a symbol of development and prosperity in Iran.

He was given credit for the nuclear deal with the World Powers and sought lifting of some economic sanctions against Iran boosting the national economy and providing million of jobs to the jobless. Most of the European countries had lifted economic sanctions giving a reasonable boost to economic activities inside Iran. As a result of the pragmatic approach, Iran managed to recapture its oil market earning billions of petro-dollar taking the Iranian economy out of decade old recession. Getting unprecedented support from the people of Iran, the incumbent Government can muster support from the world organizations, mainly international development finance institutions, the World Bank and its subsidiaries, to implement significant and prestigious development projects. Once peace and stability is restored in the West Asia region, more and more countries and multi-national companies will definitely rush to Iran and make significant investment with the hope to earn big profit.

Iran is a rich country by all standards and its current annual budget is spread over to 100 billion US dollars. With the passage of time, the Iran oil exports will touch 100 billion dollars and its non oil exports to more than 40 billion US dollars in a year. Most of the countries and financial institutions were found shy in making significant investment in central Iran while they are opening and courageously investing on the Mekran Coast projects-Chah Bahar Port-is an example where foreign investors and countries are making an investment of more than 50 billion dollars on a small number of projects.

Japan is building a steel mill with a capacity of two million tons a year and another steel mill is being built by South Korea with a capacity of 1.5 million ton annually. The Indian Government and its giant corporations are making huge investment in building a huge fertilizer plant based on Iranian natural gas in Chah Bahar.

Besides many countries of the world, including Far East, are making significant investment in Chah Bahar free economic and industrial zone with an effort to make Chah Bahar a big hub of economic activities in the region.

Hassan Rouhani will concentrate his efforts on lifting of remaining economic sanctions, breaking isolation of Iran and making Iran an effective partner in world economy and politics. Presumably, Russia, China and the entire European Community will be supporting Rouhani’s efforts making Iran a more prosperous country for the Iranian people.