Reformer Massoud Pezeshkian wins Iranian presidential election

“We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone,” the new president promised on Saturday, after calling for the reestablishment of “constructive relations” with the West during his campaign.

He advocates for Iran to open up to the West. Reformist candidate Massoud Pezeshkian won the second round of the Iranian presidential election on Saturday, July 6, ahead of ultraconservative Said Jalili. At the end of the vote, held on Friday, this 69-year-old MP received more than 16 million votes, against more than 13 million for his opponent, out of a nearly final total of 30 million ballots already counted, according to the electoral authorities.

“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”said Massoud Pezeshkian, in his first speech since his victory, thanking his supporters. While affirming his loyalty to the Islamic Republic, the man Iranians call “the doctor” calls for “constructive relationships” with Washington and European countries, in order to “bringing Iran out of its isolation”.

The presidential election, hastily organized after the death of ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May, was held in a context of popular discontent, particularly over the state of the economy, hit by international sanctions. Massoud Pezeshkian had received the support of two former presidents, the reformist Mohammad Khatami and the moderate Hassan Rohani.

No one would have initially bet on this MP from Tabriz, the large city in northwestern Iran, when his candidacy was accepted by the Guardian Council along with five other candidates, all conservatives. This father, who raised three children alone after the death of his wife and another child in a car accident in 1993, presents himself as the “voice of the voiceless”.

For this second round, some 61 million Iranians were called to the polls. The turnout was 49.8%. Opposition figures in Iran and in the diaspora had called for a boycott of the vote, judging that the conservative and reformist camps represent two sides of the same coin. The election should have limited repercussions, the Iranian president having only limited powers. He is responsible for implementing, at the head of the government, the broad political guidelines set by the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the head of state.