TEHRAN - Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, chairman of the Expediency Council, said on Saturday that the election competition has ended and now is the time for “unity” and “cooperation”.

Rafsanjani, a candidate for the Assembly of Experts who grabbed the highest votes in the Friday election, made the remarks at a meeting of the Expediency Council. President Hassan Rouhani also secured the second highest number of votes for a seat in the Assembly of Experts.

“The competition has finished and the time of unity and cooperation has arrived,” the veteran politician noted.

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 60 percent of the people voted in the parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections on Friday.

Also according to unconfirmed reports, Mohammad Reza Aref, a leading moderate reformers, and Gholam-Ali Hadad Adel, a senior principlist, won first and second places for parliament in the Tehran constituency.

Rafsanjani said, “Yesterday’s elections (Friday elections) will be registered a valuable event in the history of Islamic Iran.”

It is the time to build the country after holding the elections, noted Rafsanjani who held the post of president from 1989 to 1997 for two consecutive terms.

He added the people’s participation in the elections was a “responsible act” and “praiseworthy”.

Rafsanjani also said that the people in the Middle East region have the right to live in a “secure and peaceful atmosphere”.

Commenting on the ceasefire in Syria, he said that efforts should be made to make the ceasefire long lasting in order to put an end to the war in the country.

A ceasefire in Syria’s war began on Saturday.

NA/PA