Iranians vote for new president

    TEHRAN, June 17 (Xinhuanet) -- Polling for Iran's presidential election ended here Friday at 11:00 p.m. local time (1830 GMT).

    Iranian Interior Minister Moussavi Lari has ordered all polling stations across the country stopped admitting new voters, but those who have already entered the stations will be allowed to finish their voting.

    After all 42, 000 polling stations closed doors, vote count willbegin and official results are expected to be announced in 24 hours.

    The turnout rate of Iran's ninth presidential election was estimated at some 55 percent by the interior ministry.

    The voting, starting at 9:00 a.m. local time (0430 GMT), was scheduled to end at 7:00 p.m. (1430 GMT), but was extended four hours due to a massive participation of the people, the ministry said.

    There are some 46.7 million eligible voters, or all Iranians aged 15 and above, in the Islamic republic. They will choose a successor to the outgoing President Mohammad Khatami, who is barredfrom seeking a third consecutive term.

    Iran is facing some tough problems, including the nuclear deadlock, longtime hostility with the United States, a sluggish economy and high unemployment.

    Among the hopefuls, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been the front-runner for months, but he is still not guaranteed to have an outright victory as his supporting rate has never reached 30 percent in recent polls.

    Under Iran's law, if nobody garners at least 50 percent of the votes cast, the top two vote-getters will hold a runoff one week later. Enditem