Tehran, July 6 (EFE).- Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian won the second round of Iran’s presidential elections and will become the country’s next president, the Iranian Electoral Commission reported Saturday.
Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old cardiac surgeon, achieved 53.6 percent of the votes against the ultra-conservative Saeed Jalili with 44.3 percent, in an election that had a participation of 49.9 percent with more than 30 million votes.
“In this way, Mr. Masud Pezeshkian is the winner of the fourteenth presidential elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Iranian Electoral Commission Spokesman Mohsen Eslami said in a televised press conference.
The former Health Minister and parliamentarian will become the ninth president in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will succeed the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter accident in May.
Iran’s president-elect was a little-known politician at the start of the campaign, but he has been gaining popularity with a message of moderation, rapprochement with the West and criticism of the veil.
He has managed to unite the vote of discontent with the policies of Raisi, under whose government social and political repression increased, while his campaign has fueled fear of Jalili, an ultra-conservative with a reputation for “intransigent.”
Pezeshkian will become the first reformist president, a political group that seeks to open the country, in years in the country at a time of strong regional tensions due to the war in Gaza, but also within the country due to policies such as the imposition of the veil and the lack of freedoms.
The Iranian president has decision-making power on national issues and to a lesser extent on foreign and security policy in Iran, where the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, serves as head of state with vast powers.
The participation of the 61 million Iranians called to the polls was also at stake in the elections and 49.8 percent of the electorate voted, which represents an improvement over the 39.9 percent in the first round.
That 39.9 percent represented the abstention record in the history of Iran, which has always placed great importance on participation as proof of popular support and legitimacy.
This low turnout revealed the discontent of a significant part of the population with the political system established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979. EFE
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