- author, Kasra Naji
- role, BBC Persian
Iran is set to hold a runoff election after both hardline candidate Saeed Jalili and his rival, the supposed reformist Massoud Pezechkian, failed to secure a majority in the presidential election.
Candidates need to win 50 percent of the vote, but both candidates received around 40 percent of the vote, giving Pezeshkian a narrow lead.
Iran's Interior Ministry confirmed that the second round is scheduled for July 5.
State media reported that unidentified gunmen attacked a vehicle carrying election boxes in Sistan and Baluchestan province, killing two security forces.
Early results from the Interior Ministry showed Mr Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator, trailing Mr Pezeshkian, a former heart surgeon and health minister, by about one million votes.
Pezeshkian said the morality policing of enforcing strict dress codes on women was “immoral” and promised a different approach.
Although Pezeshkian is considered a reformer, he remains deeply loyal to Iran's supreme leader.
Some commentators have suggested that if he is elected, Iran should expect little more than a difference in tone.
The vote is to decide who will replace former President Ebrahim Raisi, whose helicopter crashed into a mountain on May 19, killing seven others.
Iran has 61.5 million eligible voters, but turnout is just around 40%, the lowest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The country's most powerful man, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had called for a “maximum” voter turnout.
In 2022, Iran was rocked by a wave of mass protests following the death of 22-year-old Martha Amini, who was detained by morality police for allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code.
Rights groups say hundreds of people have been killed and thousands detained in the crackdown.
