Iran presidential vote goes to runoff between reformist and conservative

Iran is voting to replace hard-line leader Ebrahim Raisi after he died last month in a helicopter crash. Iranian law requires any one candidate for president must win at least 50 percent of the vote to assume office.

In a surprise development, it was the sole reformist who received the most votes Friday. Masoud Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon, secured almost 10.5 million votes. He will face off against ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, a former chief nuclear negotiator with just under 9.5 million votes. Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf came in third place with about 3 million votes.

The runoff will be held next Friday, July 5, when Iranians will choose between Pezeshkian and Jalili. Iran’s influential Guardian Council, an unelected body of jurists and theologians, will review the results before the top two candidates start campaigning again.

It appears that the conservative vote was split, allowing a reformist to receive the largest share of votes. Two other conservative candidates withdrew from the election days before the vote, but Jalili and Ghalibaf resisted calls for one to step aside.

Ghalibaf announced his endorsement of Jalili on Saturday, calling him “the candidate of the revolutionary front.”

“I ask all the revolutionary forces and my supporters to help prevent bringing the wave that is the cause of an important part of our economic and political problems today back to power,” he said, explaining his opposition to the reformist Pezeshkian in a written statement to his supporters published by state-run media.

Many predicted that the vote would go to a runoff. But some analysts said Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, probably wanted to avoid such an eventuality, due to concerns that a second round of voting could inject additional uncertainty into the process.

For Iran’s ruling clerics, a smooth, predictable electoral process with high voter turnout is important for the regime’s stability and legitimacy.

In the days leading up to the election, Khamenei called on Iranians to vote. “The continuity of the Islamic republic depends on people’s turnout and participation,” Khamenei told reporters Friday after he cast his ballot as polls opened across the country.

Instead, turnout slumped, motivated by a mix of apathy and opposition to Iran’s clerical rulers. Many Iranians said they would not vote because they don’t believe elections have the power to influence policy, while others said they were disillusioned with a government that has failed to improve their daily lives.

The vote comes as Iran is gripped with an economic crisis that has seen inflation spiral out of control. Regional tensions are also high as Israel wages war in Gaza against Hamas, a group supported by the Iranian regime.

In April, the tensions entered uncharted territory when Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel. Elsewhere other groups supported by Iran, including Hezbollah and the Houthis, are launching attacks that they say are in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The election of a new Iranian president will not alter policy in key areas such as foreign and nuclear matters. The country’s supreme leader makes virtually all major state decisions. But the president does hold the power to set some economic policy, oversee the national budget and sign treaties.