Iranians in Switzerland prepare to vote
Iranians living in Switzerland may cast their vote in Friday’s presidential election at one of three special ballot offices set up in Bern, Geneva and Zurich.
They will be able to vote in Iran’s 12th presidential election at either the Iranian embassy in Bern, the Iranian Mission to the United Nations in Geneva or at the Iranian Cultural Centre in Zurich.
The three voting offices will be open from 9am to 6pm on Friday, the Iranian chargé d’affairs told the Swiss News Agency.
Iran is holding elections to choose its next president on 19 May. The withdrawal of various candidates has turned the election into a two-man race between incumbent President Hassan Rouhani, the centrist-reformist candidate, and hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi, the candidate closest to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Some four to five million Iranians live abroad. The biggest expat communities are in the United States and Canada. In Europe, there are large Iranian communities in Sweden, Britain, France and the Netherlands.
Around 10,000 Iranians live in Switzerland, mainly in Zurich, Bern, Geneva and Lausanne, and on average 1,000 of them generally vote in Iranian elections.
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