Iran will proceed to a run-off election afer the leading candidates, Saeed Jalili and Massoud Pezeshkian, failed to secure majority votes in the presidential election held on Friday.
Pezeshkian, slightly ahead in initial results, faces Jalili in the second round scheduled for July 5.
Early results showed Pezeshkian, a former health minister and heart surgeon, leading former nuclear negotiator Jalili by approximately one million votes.
Former nuclear negotiator Jalili got 9.4 million votes while heart surgeon Pezeshkian got 10.4 million.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. However, despite calls by the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, most Iranians didn’t vote.
The overall turnout was 39.9%, according to provisional results.
Jalili is known for fighting in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. He served as a deputy minister.
Pezeshkian is a lawmaker and heart surgeon who has the support of some pro-reformers.
Iranians in 2021 elected their last president, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in the May 19 in a helicopter crash that also killed seven senior officials.
There’s been only one runoff presidential election in Iran’s history in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
