(Tehran) The presidential election in Iran will be decided on July 5 between the reformer candidates Massoud Pezeshkian and the ultraconservative Saïd Jalili, who came out on top in a first round where participation was the lowest since the beginnings of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Virtually unknown when he entered the race, MP Massoud Pezeshkian won 42.5% of the vote on Friday.
He beat Saïd Jalili, former nuclear negotiator, credited with 38.6% in the first round of this presidential election organized after the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi in a helicopter accident in May.
PHOTO RAHEB HOMAVANDI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Ultraconservative presidential candidate Said Jalili
Neither candidate having obtained an absolute majority, a second round is necessary, for only the second time in 14 presidential elections since 1979.
In a video message, Mr Pezeshkian called on his supporters to go to the polls again next week “to save the country from poverty, lies, discrimination and injustice”.
Voters have a clear choice to make between this reformer who, while declaring himself loyal to the Islamic Republic, advocates openness, particularly internationally, and the ultraconservative defending the pursuit of an anti-Western policy and firmness on social issues, such as the wearing of the veil for women.
Said Jalili received the support of the conservative speaker of parliament, Mohamad Baquer Ghalibaf, on Saturday, who came third with 13.8% of the vote.
“I call on all revolutionary forces and my supporters” to “try to elect the candidate of the revolutionary front,” he said. Two other conservative candidates, who had dropped out before the first round, also called for a vote for the ultraconservative.
To win, Massoud Pezeshkian will have to count on a mobilization of abstainers determined to block Saïd Jalili.
But the task is proving difficult as participation, at around 40% according to the authorities, was even lower than for the 2021 presidential election and for the legislative elections in March.
PHOTO VAHID SALEMI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
The calls to vote had been launched both by the highest authority of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and by figures from the reformist and moderate camps.
In addition, voting operations, which were to end at 6 p.m., were extended until midnight.
Opponents, particularly those from the diaspora, had called for a boycott of the vote.
Very different candidates
The second round will be closely watched abroad as Iran, a Middle Eastern heavyweight, is at the heart of several geopolitical crises, from the war in Gaza to the nuclear issue, in which it opposes Western countries.
The election will, however, have a limited impact since the president has limited powers: he is responsible for implementing, at the head of the government, the broad political guidelines set by the supreme guide, who is the head of state.
Aged 69 and a surgeon by profession, Massoud Pezeshkian is a member of parliament from Tabriz, the large city in northwestern Iran, and has limited government experience, including a post as health minister from 2001 to 2005 in the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami.
He became known for his outspokenness, not hesitating to criticize the government during the protest movement sparked by the death in detention of Mahsa Amini in September 2022.
He also advocates a warming of relations between Iran and Western countries, led by the United States, in order to lift the sanctions which are severely affecting the economy.
On the contrary, Said Jalili, 58, is in favor of an inflexible policy towards the West. He demonstrated this during the six years he led the negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, between 2007 and 2013.
Throughout his career, Mr. Jalili rose to key positions within the Islamic Republic with the trust of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
He is currently one of its two representatives on the Supreme National Security Council, the country’s highest security body.
Without publishing the first results, the press took a position on Saturday morning according to its political attachment. “Long live hope”, headlined the reformist newspaper Sazandegi, publishing a photo of Massoud Pezeshkian, while the government daily Iran called for “voting for the authority of Iran”.
The election was marked by the death of two police officers in the attack Friday evening by armed men on a vehicle transporting ballot boxes in the troubled province of Sistan-Baluchestan (southeast), according to the Tasnim news agency .