Masoud Pezeshkian
On Saturday, Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s reformist candidate, defeated ultraconservative Saeed Jalili in a runoff presidential election.
Mohsen Eslami, the electoral authority spokesman stated, “Pezeshkian received over 16 million votes and Jalili more than 13 million out of approximately 30 million votes cast”.
He went on to say that voter turnout was 49.8 percent.
The amount of spoilt ballots was reported to be more than 600,000.
Masoud Pezeshkian thanked his supporters for coming to vote with love and to help their country.
“We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone; we are all people of this country; we should use everyone for the progress of the country”, Pezeshkian noted.
The poll, called shortly after the helicopter crash that killed ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi, followed a historically low turnout in the first round last week.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who retains ultimate authority, had urged a higher turnout in the runoff, underlining the significance of the poll.
Khamenei stated that the first-round turnout was lower than expected, but that it was not an act against the system.
The ballot takes place against a backdrop of rising regional tensions over the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme, and domestic unhappiness about the health of Iran’s sanctions-hit economy.
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