Tehran, Jun 29 (EFE).- Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and the ultra-conservative Saeed Jalili will compete for the Iranian presidency in a second round of elections after neither candidate secured 50% of the vote in the first round, Iran’s Electoral Commission said Saturday.
The elections had the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with only 40% of voters heading to the polls, a sign of citizen discontent with the economic situation and the lack of freedoms in the country.
“None of the candidates has obtained the absolute majority of the votes,” the spokesman of the Electoral Commission, Mohsen Eslami told a televised press conference.
“A second round will be held as established by law, which will be on July 5,” added Eslami.
In the elections, the reformist Pezeshkian won 10,415,991 votes, representing 42.4 % of the total, closely followed by Jalili with 9,473,298 votes, or 38.6 %.
Far behind was the one who was the favorite when the election campaign began, the pragmatic conservative Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, with 3,383,340 votes, or 13.79 %. Further back in fourth is cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi with 206,397 ballots, or 0.8 %.
The elections are being held to choose the successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter accident in May, along with seven other people.
The Iranian president has decision-making power on domestic issues and to a lesser extent on foreign and security policy in Iran, where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei enjoys vast powers as head of state.
Cardiac surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old former health minister, began the election campaign with low expectations but has been gaining momentum with a message of rapprochement with the West and criticism of the Islamic veil.
His campaign slogan is “For Iran”, which evokes the title of the song that became the anthem of the protests unleashed by the death of Mahsa Amini and whose author Shervin Hajipour was sentenced to almost four years for writing it.
Pezeshkian, who belongs to the Azeri minority community, has been backed by former presidents Mohamed Khatami (1997-2005) and Hassan Rohani (2013-2021) of the reformist bloc, which favors opening the country up to the West.
The previous presidential elections in 2021 did not allow any moderates to take part.
Pezeshkian has in fact presented his candidacy as a “third term” of Khatami, the first reformist president who breathed some openness into Iran, and with whom he entered politics in 2000 as Minister of Health.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Jalili, a 58-year-old former chief Iranian nuclear negotiator, who has been described as a “true product of the Islamic Revolution”.
Jalili has served as an advisor to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and is staunchly opposed to the West.
He is considered the establishment’s candidate who will follow the policies of the ultra-conservative Raisi, under whose government repression increased.
The elections registered the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic, which attaches great importance to participation in elections as a sign of its legitimacy and popular support.
The percentage of votes is below the previous presidential elections of 2021, which registered 48%, and the parliamentary elections of March, when 41% voted.
The low turnout demonstrates the level of popular discontent with the dire economic situation, the lack of freedoms and a deep disaffection with the Islamic Republic, especially among young people.
Khamenei’s repeated calls to vote “for the continuation, strength, dignity and honor of the Islamic Republic” appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
If the authorities consider voting as a show of support, many Iranians believe that abstention is a form of protest that can undermine the legitimacy of the Islamic system. EFE
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