TEHRAN: Iran’s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, Iranian media reported. Pezeshkian won the election by securing 16,384,403 of the votes while his opponent Saeed Jalili, managed to secure 13,538,179 of the votes, according to an announcement made by Mohsen Eslami, spokesperson for Iran’s election headquarters.
The election, called early following the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, followed a first round marked by a historically low turnout previous week.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had called for a higher turnout in the runoff, emphasizing the significance of the polls. He said the first-round turnout was lower than anticipated.
In first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only reformist permitted to stand, won the largest number of votes, about 42 percent, while Saeed Jalili came second with about 39 percent, Iran’s elections authority said.
Iran’s main reformist alliance supported Pezeshkian, with endorsements by former presidents Hassan Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, a moderate.
Pezeshkian, has called for “constructive ties” with Western nations to revive the nuclear agreement in order to “get Tehran out of its isolation”.
Jalili, is Iran’s former nuclear negotiator who is widely recognized for his uncompromising anti-West position.
Who is Masoud Pezeshkian?
Masoud Pezeshkian was born in Mahabad, West Azarbaijan Province on 29 September 1954. He is reformist politician who represented Tabriz, Osku, and Azarshahr electoral district in the Parliament of Iran. He also served as its First Deputy Speaker from 2016 to 2020. Masoud Pezeshkian was Health Minister between 2001 and 2005 in President Mohammad Khatami’s cabinet.
A cardiac surgeon by training, he also worked as the chancellor of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and currently is a member of the academic staff at the university in northern Iran. Earlier, Pezeshkian previously ran for the presidency in 2013 and 2021. The newly elected President would replace Ebrahim Raeisi, who passed away in a helicopter crash in Iran’s northwestern mountainous region on May 19.
