• Masoud Pezeshkian secures 42.4pc and Saeed Jalili 38.6pc of the vote
• Historically low turnout sees over one million ballots spoiled

TEHRAN: The sole reformist in Iran’s presidential election, Masoud Pezeshkian, will face the ultraconservative Saeed Jalili in a run-off on July 5, authorities said on Satur­day, following a vote marred by historically low turnout.

Pezeshkian secured 42.4 per cent of the vote, while Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator, came second with 38.6pc, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority.

Conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bag­her Ghalibaf was next with 13.8pc, while the only other candidate, conservative cleric Mostafa Pourm­oham­madi, got less than 1pc.

“None of the candidates could garner the absolute majority of the votes,” electoral authority spokesman Mohsen Eslami said.

In his first post-election remarks, Pezeshkian thanked his supporters and urged them to vote again next Friday “to save the country from poverty, lies, discrimination and injustice”.

“I hope your presence will be the basis of a new voice for change in attitude, behaviour, conversation and in the distribution and allocation of resources,” he added in a video published on the website of the reformist newspaper Etemad.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called for a high turnout ahead of Friday’s vote.

Only slightly more than 40pc of the 61 million electorate took part — a record low turnout for the Islamic republic — and more than one million ballots were spoiled.

The poll had been scheduled to take place in 2025 but was brought forward by the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said Friday’s vote went smoothly. “The presidential election was conducted in complete security, in perfect health, with very serious competition and with the valuable presence of people at the ballot boxes,” he said.

The Tasnim news agency said however that militants attacked a vehicle carrying ballot boxes in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, leaving two policemen dead and others wounded.

Conservatives consolidate

The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, had originally approved six contenders. But a day ahead of the election, two of them — the ultraconservative mayor of Tehran Alireza Zakani and Raisi’s vice president Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi — dropped out.

After the final results were released, they both asked their supporters to vote for Jalili in the July 5 run-off.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2024