Masoud Pezeshkian could benefit from a higher voter turnout in the second round of voting, scheduled for next Friday.
Tehran, Iran – Iran's presidential election is likely to head to a runoff next week after reformist-backed Massoud Pezechkian and hardline candidate Saeed Jalili came out on top but failed to secure a majority.
The latest figures released by the Interior Ministry's election headquarters on Saturday morning showed that moderate Pezeshkian was in the lead with 8.3 million votes out of just over 19 million total votes counted, followed by former nuclear negotiator Jalili with more than 7.1 million.
Conservative Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf dropped out of the election with 2.6 million votes, while conservative Islamist leader Mostafa Pourmohammadi dropped out with 158,314 votes. Two other candidates, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakhani and senior government official Amir Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, also dropped out.
The election comes within 50 days of a constitutional period for choosing a new president, after President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others, including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdullahian, were killed in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Like other major elections over the past four years, Friday's vote saw low turnout; the Interior Ministry has yet to release an official turnout figure.
The election that brought Raisi to the presidency had the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic of Iran's more than 40-year history, with 48.8% of voters voting. Parliamentary elections held in March and May had a turnout of 41%, the lowest in any major poll since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Voter apathy comes as many remain disillusioned in the aftermath of deadly protests across the country in 2022 and 2023, and as the economy continues to grapple with a host of challenges, including mismanaged operations and inflation above 40% due to U.S. sanctions.
If Iranians vote in the runoff election on July 5, turnout is expected to be high as it will present a clearer choice between the two rival camps.
Pezeshkian, a prominent politician and former health minister, has the backing of centrist and reformist former presidents and other key figures and has pledged to lift sanctions and bridge the widening gap between Iran's people and its regime by restoring a flawed 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
A senior member of the Supreme National Security Council, Jalili has pledged to fight corruption and mismanagement, as well as bring inflation down to single digits and boost economic growth to an astounding 8 percent.
Pezeshkian was the only moderate among six whose candidacy was approved by the Guardian Council, the constitutional body that vets all candidates.
Jalili's supporters cast him not as a miracle worker but as a presidential candidate who could improve the situation somewhat, and argue that his victory would represent a major setback.
Jalili's name is linked to years of nuclear negotiations in the late 2000s and early 2010s that ultimately led to Iran being isolated on the international stage and sanctions being imposed by the United Nations Security Council.
The hardline politician, who has sought the presidency for more than a decade, has accused Pezeshkian's supporters of jeopardizing the country's nuclear program as part of a landmark deal signed in 2015 that was scrapped in 2018 by then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
Jalili and other conservatives have accused his opponents of incompetence and say a victory for Pezeshkian would simply mean a third term for centrist former President Hassan Rouhani.
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