Ebrahim Raisi wins Iran presidency as turnout low
Dubai: Iran's judiciary chief won the country's presidential election in a landslide victory Saturday, propelling the supreme leader's protege into Tehran's highest civilian position in a vote that appeared to see the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history.
Initial results showed Ebrahim Raisi won 17.8 million votes in the contest, dwarfing those of the race's sole moderate candidate. However, Raisi dominated the election only after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualified his strongest competition.
His candidacy, and the sense the election served more as a coronation for him, sparked widespread apathy among eligible voters in the Islamic Republic, which has held up turnout as a sign of support for the theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Some, including former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for a boycott.
In initial results, former Revolutionary Guard commander Mohsen Rezaei won 3.3 million votes and moderate Abdolnasser Hemmati got 2.4 million, said Jamal Orf, the head of Iran's Interior Ministry election headquarters. The race's fourth candidate, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, had around 1 million votes, Orf said.
Hemmati offered his congratulations on Instagram to Raisi early Saturday.
I hope your administration provides causes for pride for the Islamic Republic of Iran, improves the economy and life with comfort and welfare for the great nation of Iran, he wrote.
On Twitter, Rezaei praised Khamenei and the Iranian people for taking part in the vote.
God willing, the decisive election of my esteemed brother, Ayatollah Dr. Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, promises the establishment of a strong and popular government to solve the country's problems, Rezaei wrote.
The quick concessions, while not unusual in Iran's previous elections, signaled what semiofficial news agencies inside Iran had been hinting at for hours: That the carefully controlled vote had been a blowout win for Raisi amid the boycott calls.
As night fell Friday, turnout appeared far lower than in Iran's last presidential election in 2017.
Balloting came to a close at 2.a.m. Saturday, after the government extended voting to accommodate what it called crowding at several polling places nationwide. Paper ballots, stuffed into large plastic boxes, were to be counted by hand through the night, and authorities said they expected to have initial results and turnout figures Saturday morning at the earliest.
My vote will not change anything in this election, the number of people who are voting for Raisi is huge and Hemmati does not have the necessary skills for this, said Hediyeh, a 25-year-old woman who gave only her first name while hurrying to a taxi in Haft-e Tir Square after avoiding the polls. I have no candidate here.
Iranian state television sought to downplay the turnout, pointing to the Gulf Arab sheikhdoms surrounding it ruled by hereditary leaders, and the lower participation in Western democracies. After a day of amplifying officials' attempts to get out the vote, state TV broadcast scenes of jam-packed voting booths in several provinces overnight, seeking to portray a last-minute rush to the polls.
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Delhi HC orders Rs 30 lakh compensation to kin of 3 deceased sanitation workers
New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has directed the city authorities to pay Rs 30 lakh compensation each to the families of three sanitation workers who died during manual scavenging in 2017.
The HC allowed the petition by the family members seeking higher ex gratia in accordance with a Supreme Court order in 2023 which increased the compensation payable to the dependents of the victims who lost their lives in manual scavenging to Rs 30 lakh from the existing Rs 10 lakh.
The family members said in the petition that the three sanitation workers died in August 2017 while cleaning a drain in Lajpat Nagar. The plea said the deceased were engaged by a Delhi Jal Board sub-contractor.
The petitioners said that after they died, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh was awarded to the family members. However, they prayed that the amount be increased to Rs 30 lakh.
"It can be seen that the directions issued by the Supreme Court were expressly made applicable to all the statutory bodies including corporations, railways, cantonments as well as the agencies under its control.
"Moreover, the Union and State governments were directed to ensure that the rehabilitation measures were taken with respect to sewage workers, including the family of those who have lost their lives. Specifically, it was directed that the compensation of Rs 10 lakh that was given to the family members of the deceased workers be enhanced to Rs 30 lakh," Justice Sachin Datta said.
The high court said necessarily, the ameliorative directions, strictures and the embargo imposed by the Supreme Court are applicable to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) as also to any agency that may be engaged by the board within any part of Delhi in connection with the work relating to the collection of sewage or carrying out connected works.
"Any disregard or violation thereto would invite strict consequences" as envisaged in the apex court verdict, it said.
Considering the reasoning given by the apex court, it would be a travesty if the entitlement of the family members of the deceased scavenging workers is confined to Rs 10 lakh, the high court said.
"The same would defeat the directions of the Supreme Court to enhance the compensation to Rs 30 lakh on the basis that the previously fixed compensation of Rs 10 lakh was fixed as far back as in the year 1993 and could not be considered to be an adequate compensation," it said, adding that the family members of the deceased sanitation workers are entitled to a compensation of Rs 30 lakh.
The high court said the remaining amount be paid to the family members within eight weeks.
Observing that manual scavengers have lived in bondage, systematically trapped in inhuman conditions for a long time, the Supreme Court had in October last year asked the Centre and state governments to completely eradicate manual scavenging across the country.
Passing a slew of directions for the benefit of people involved in manual scavenging, it had asked the central and state governments to pay Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the next of kin of those who die while cleaning sewers.
"The court hereby directs the Union and the States to ensure that the compensation for sewer deaths is increased (given that the previous amount fixed, that is, Rs 10 lakh) was made applicable from 1993. The current equivalent of that amount is Rs 30 lakh. This shall be the amount to be paid, by the concerned agency, that is, the Union, the Union Territory or the State as the case may be. In other words, compensation for sewer deaths shall be Rs 30 lakh," the Supreme Court had ordered.
It had also said that the authorities needed to take measures for the rehabilitation of the victims and their families.
