{"id":41638,"date":"2024-07-06T12:46:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T07:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=41638"},"modified":"2024-07-06T12:46:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-06T07:46:23","slug":"iran-reformist-masoud-pezeshkian-wins-run-off-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/iran-reformist-masoud-pezeshkian-wins-run-off-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran reformist Masoud Pezeshkian wins run-off presidential election"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN: Iran<\/span>‘s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election<\/a> against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the interior ministry said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pezeshkian received more than 16 million votes and Jalili more than 13 million out of about 30 million votes cast, electoral authority spokesman Mohsen Eslami said, adding that voter turnout stood at 49.8 percent<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The number of spoiled ballots was reported to be over 600,000. <\/span>Pezeshkian thanked his supporters who came to vote “with love and to help” the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

“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,” he said on state television.<\/span><\/p>\n

The election, called early after the death of ultraconservative president\u00a0Ebrahim Raisi\u00a0in a helicopter crash, followed a first round marked by a historically low turnout last week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran’s supreme leader\u00a0Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority, had called for a higher turnout in the runoff, <\/span>emphasizing<\/span> the importance of the election. <\/span>He said the <\/span>first-round<\/span> turnout was lower than expected, but added that it was not an act “against the system”.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ballot comes against a backdrop of heightened regional tensions\u00a0over the Gaza wa<\/span>r<\/span>, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear <\/span>programme<\/span>, and domestic discontent over the state of\u00a0Iran’s sanctions-hit\u00a0economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reformist support<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

In last week’s first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only reformist allowed to stand, won the largest number of votes, around 42 percent, while Jalili came second with around 39 percent, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only 40 percent of Iran’s 61 million eligible voters took part in the first round — the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the\u00a0Islamic Revolution\u00a0of 1979.<\/span><\/p>\n

The candidacy of Pezeshkian, a relative unknown until recently, has raised the hopes of Iran’s reformists after years of dominance by the conservative and ultraconservative camps.<\/span><\/p>\n

Iran’s main reformist\u00a0coalition\u00a0supported Pezeshkian, with endorsements by former presidents Mohammad Khatami and\u00a0Hassan Rouhani, a moderate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon, has called for “constructive relations” with Western countries to revive the nuclear deal <\/span>to<\/span> “get Iran out of its isolation”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jalili, 58, is Iran’s former nuclear negotiator who is widely <\/span>recognized<\/span> for his uncompromising anti-West stance. <\/span>During his campaign, he rallied a substantial base of hardline supporters and received backing from other conservative figures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahead of Friday’s runoff, Pezeshkian and Jalili took part in two televised debates during which they discussed the low turnout, as well as Iran’s economic woes, international relations, <\/span>and<\/span> internet restrictions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pezeshkian vowed to ease long-standing internet restrictions and to “fully” oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory headscarf for women, a high-profile issue since the death in police custody in 2022 of Mahsa Amini. <\/span>The 22-year-old Iranian Kurd had been detained for an alleged breach of the dress code and her death sparked months of nationwide unrest.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN: Iran‘s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, the interior ministry said. Pezeshkian received more than 16 million votes and Jalili more than 13 million out of about 30 million votes cast, electoral authority spokesman Mohsen Eslami said, adding that voter turnout stood at 49.8 percent. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":41639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19255,19446,19257,19447],"class_list":["post-41638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-iran-presidential-election","tag-masoud-pezeshkian","tag-reformist-pezeshkian","tag-run-off-presidential-election"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41641,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41638\/revisions\/41641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}