An Iranian man casts his vote at a polling station in Tehran during Iran’s presidential election on Friday.
Hossein Beris/AFP
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Hossein Beris/AFP
Iranians will go to the polls again next week to decide whether a reformer or a hard-line conservative will become president.
The runoff election comes after a first round of voting on Friday ended with no candidate receiving a majority. Under Iranian electoral law, a candidate needs to win 50 percent plus one vote to win by a landslide.
However, two leading candidates have emerged: reformist Massoud Pezechkian and hardline politician Said Jalili.
Pezeshkian has called for increased foreign outreach as a means to improve Iran’s economy, while Jalili is a former nuclear negotiator with strong anti-Western views.
The two will face off in a second round of voting scheduled for July 5 to decide who will succeed former President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last month.
The supreme leader holds the most power in Iran, but the president can still influence domestic policy and some foreign policy.
The election will be only the second presidential runoff in Iran’s history – the first was in 2005, when hardline leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Iran’s critics are quick to say the country’s elections are neither free nor fair.
First poll results
As of Friday, Pezeshkian had received 10.4 million votes, while Jalili was trailing with 9.4 million, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency.
As some predicted, the hard-line vote was split, but Pezechkian appears to have won many votes from moderate and reform-minded Iranians.
The election confirmed widespread voter disillusionment with Iran’s current political process. Turnout appeared to be the lowest on record in Iran’s history, continuing a trend seen in other recent elections.
What is at stake?
Before Raisi’s death, the hardliner was seen as a protégé and possible successor to 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Now, the outlook for who will succeed Khamenei, the man with the power to make the most important decisions in Iran, is even murkier.
What is clear is that Khamenei does not support many of the reformist ideas promoted by Pezechkian, such as his call for closer ties with other countries.
But overall, the vote is not expected to produce any major change, with no candidates proposing policies that could be considered controversial, such as addressing strict Islamic dress codes for women.
