Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian has won Iran's runoff presidential election, defeating hardliner Saeed Jalili by promising to engage with the West and relax the country's mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests have strained the Islamic Republic.
Authorities announced Saturday morning that Pezeshkian secured the presidency with 16.3 million votes compared to Jalili’s 13.5 million from Friday’s voting.
Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, celebrated in the streets of Tehran and other cities as his victory over Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator close to Iran’s supreme leader, became evident.
Pezeshkian has promised no radical changes to Iran’s Shia theocracy, consistently recognizing the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the ultimate authority on state matters. However, his moderate goals will face resistance from a government still dominated by hardliners.
The first round of voting on June 28 saw the lowest turnout since the 1979 revolution. Iranian officials have long used voter turnout to gauge support for the Shia theocracy, which has been under pressure from sanctions, mass protests, and crackdowns on dissent.
Officials, including Khamenei, anticipated higher participation rates as voting began, with state television showing modest lines at some polling stations. However, online videos showed some polling sites empty, and a survey of several sites in Tehran revealed light traffic amidst heavy security.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million between 18 and 30. Voting, initially scheduled to end at 6 pm, was extended until midnight to encourage higher turnout.
The late president, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader. Although Khamenei remains the final decision-maker, the new president could influence Iran’s foreign policy towards either confrontation or cooperation with the West.
Raisi was known for his involvement in the mass executions of 1988 and the brutal crackdowns on dissent following the 2022 protests over Mahsa Amini’s death, a young woman detained for allegedly not properly wearing the mandatory headscarf.
In April, Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel, and militia groups supported by Tehran, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, have intensified their attacks.
Iran is enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels and has enough stockpiled to build several nuclear weapons if it chooses.
The campaign also addressed potential implications if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election in November. Trump withdrew the US from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Although Iran has engaged in indirect talks with the Biden administration, there has been no significant progress towards reinstating constraints on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.
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