TEHRAN, June 18. /TASS/. Iranians began heading to polling stations to cast their ballots in the national presidential elections at 7 a.m. local time. The country has set up around 66,800 voting stations across the nation.

Iranians can also vote in 133 countries around the world where 234 more stations operate. Overall, 52,310,000 Iranians are eligible to cast their votes.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has cast his ballot in the national presidential elections and urged Iranians to head to voting stations, Press TV reported on Friday.

"We invite the population to go and vote because it is in the country’s best interests," he said.

On Wednesday, several candidates decided to stand down, leaving four people in the running to lead the nation: Secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council Mohsen Rezaee, Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, Deputy Parliament Speaker Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi and former Governor of the Central Bank Abdolnaser Hemmati.

Hassan Rouhani, incumbent President of Iran, is ineligible to take part in the elections as he served two terms in the office in a row.