In the lead-up to the official announcement of Raisi’s victory, each of the other three candidates sent letters of congratulations to the President Elect and conceded defeat. First was Mohsen Rezaei at about 10am, Abdol-Naser Hemmati just before 11am, and finally Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi shortly after 11am. Roughly at the same time, President Hassan Rouhani made a “unofficial” statement to congratulate Raisi.
