Iran’s interior ministry declared reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian the winner over conservative Saeed Jalili in the presidential run-off elections held on Saturday. The closely contested race, which saw a turnout of around 50% in the polls, resulted in Pezeshkian securing over 16 million votes, while Jalili received approximately 13 million ballots. However, around 600,000 ballots were declared “spoiled.”
The run-off polls were conducted after none of the four candidates managed to secure more than 50% of the votes in the initial round, which saw a historic low turnout of around 40% last month – the lowest in the history of the country.
In the first round of polls, Pezeshkian won the largest number of votes with around 42%, while Jalili, a conservative former nuclear negotiator and current representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the Supreme National Security Council, came in second with around 39%, according to Iran’s elections authority.
The presidential elections were scheduled for 2025 but were brought forward following the tragic death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. The polls took place amid escalating regional tension due to conflicts involving Israel, Hamas, and Hezbollah, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its advancing nuclear program.
Following his victory in the run-off vote, President-elect Pezeshkian expressed his commitment to “extend the hand of friendship to everyone” and emphasized the need for unity, stating that the country should harness the potential of all its people for progress.
Analysts believe that a Pezeshkian presidency could pave the way for a pragmatic foreign policy, alleviate tensions related to negotiations on the 2015 nuclear deal, and improve prospects for social liberalization and political pluralism. However, some voters remain skeptical about Pezeshkian’s ability to deliver on his campaign promises, as he has publicly expressed no intention to challenge Iran’s power elite of clerics and security hawks.
Pezeshkian, a former health minister, has vowed to address the country’s economic challenges, which have been exacerbated by mismanagement, state corruption, and U.S. sanctions. Despite his reformist stance, he remains loyal to Iran’s theocratic rule and has indicated that he does not plan to confront the powerful security hawks and clerical rulers.
Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, is a heart surgeon who has represented the city of Tabriz in parliament since 2008. He has the endorsement of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami and ex-president Hassan Rouhani. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Pezeshkian, who served as a combatant and physician, was responsible for deploying medical teams to the front lines. Additionally, he served as the health minister from 2001 to 2005 during Khatami’s second term.
Pezeshkian’s personal history includes tragic loss, as he lost his wife and one of his children in a car accident in 1994. Despite this adversity, he raised his surviving two sons and a daughter alone and chose not to remarry.
