Iran Begins Presidential Election Runoff Amid Low Turnout

Iran's runoff Presidential election opened today, Friday amid low turn out, the Ministry of Interior said.

The polls will place reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili in the race to succeed Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash.

The Islamic Republic’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say in all state matters, cast his ballot when the polls opened at 08:00 am (0430 GMT), state TV showed.

“We are starting the second round of the 14th presidential election to choose the future president from among the two candidates across 58,638 polling stations in the country and all stations abroad,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to state TV.

The vote comes against the backdrop of heightened regional tensions over the war in Gaza, Iran’s dispute with the West over its nuclear programme and popular discontent at the state of the country’s sanctions-hit economy.

In last week’s first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only reformist permitted to stand, won the largest number of ballots, around 42 per cent, while the former nuclear negotiator Jalili came in second place with 39 per cent, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority.

Only 40 per cent of Iran’s 61 million eligible voters cast their ballots — the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Wednesday, Khamenei called for a higher turnout in the runoff.
“The second round of the presidential election is very important,” he said in a video carried by state TV.

He said participation was “not as expected” in the first round but that it was not an act “against the system.”

Last week’s vote saw the conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf come in third place with 13.8 per cent, while cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi garnered less than one per cent.

Iran’s presidential election was originally scheduled for 2025 but was brought forward by the death of ultraconservative president Raisi in a May helicopter crash.

Pezeshkian is a 69-year-old heart surgeon who has represented the northwestern city of Tabriz in parliament since 2008.

He has earned the support of Iran’s main reformist coalition, with former reformist presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani declaring their backing for his bid.

Jalili, 58, rallied a substantial base of hardline supporters and received backing from Ghalibaf and two other ultraconservative candidates who dropped out of the race before the first round.

Reacting, Pezeshkian said people were “fed up with their living conditions … and dissatisfied with the government’s management of affairs.”

Ali, a 24-year-old university student who asked that only his first name be used, said the better choice is Pezeshkian, whom he believes would work on “opening the country to the rest of the world.”