Millions of voters across Iran have begun casting their ballots in the country’s presidential elections.

|Although all six candidates are seen as conservatives, one of them, cleric Hassan Rowhani, has been reaching out to the reformists in recent days, BBC News reported.
The election will decide a successor to outgoing leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

His eight years in power have been characterised by economic turmoil and Western sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
Polls across Iran opened at 08:00 local time (03:30 GMT) and are due to close at 18:00 (13:30 GMT). Some 50m people are eligible to cast their ballots.
Mr Rowhani has been attracting increasing attention, speaking publicly about the need to re-engage with the West, our correspondent says.
The surge of support for him came after Mohammad Reza Aref, the only reformist candidate in the race, announced on Tuesday that he was withdrawing his candidature on the advice of the pro-reform ex-President Mohammad Khatami.

Mr Rowhani now has the endorsement of two ex-presidents, Mr Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was disqualified from
the race by the powerful Guardian Council.
However, Rowhani faces a tough challenge from hardline candidates, including top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Tehran’s mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
The remaining candidates are conservatives close to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Ahead of the election, he called on all Iranians to vote.
“Whoever is elected, if he enjoys a strong and overwhelming vote, he will be able to stand up against enemies and aggressors more properly,” Ayatollah Khamenei’s website quoted him as saying.

Friday’s election is the first since 2009, when protesters took to the streets in anger at the results which they said had been rigged in favour of Mr Ahmadinejad.