- Iranians voted in the presidential runoff election between hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and reformist lawmaker and heart surgeon Massoud Pezeshkian.
- The first round saw the lowest voter turnout ever for an Iranian election.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the final say on national affairs, but who wins the presidential election could determine Iran’s foreign policy toward confrontation or cooperation with the West.
Iranians voted Friday in a presidential runoff election between a hard-line former nuclear negotiator and a reformist lawmaker, both of whom are trying to convince a skeptical public to vote after the country has been rocked by years of economic crisis and mass protests.
The contest between hardline politician Saeed Jalili and Massoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and long-time member of parliament, comes after a first round of voting that recorded the lowest turnout in Iranian electoral history, leaving Friday’s turnout in big doubt.
Meanwhile, broader tensions are rising in the Middle East over the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In April, Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militias in the region that Iran supplies weapons to, such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, have joined the fighting and intensified their attacks.
Iran vows to back Hezbollah in fight against Israel, IRGC general renews threat of imminent missile attack
Iran continues to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels and has stockpiled enough uranium to build several nuclear weapons. While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will remain the final decision maker in national affairs, Iran’s foreign policy is likely to lean toward either confrontation or cooperation with the West, regardless of who wins the presidential election.
Security was tight on the streets of Tehran on Friday and crowds were sparse at dozens of polling stations, and state television showed footage of people queuing up at polling stations across the country.
Both Mr. Jalili and Mr. Pezeshkian voted in Tehran’s poor southern areas to boost voter turnout. While Mr. Pezeshkian came out on top in the first round of voting on June 28, Mr. Jalili has been trying to secure votes from supporters of hardline Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who came in third and later backed Mr. Jalili, a former negotiator.
Massoud Pezeshkian, a reformist candidate in the Iranian presidential election, waves his hand to cast his vote as he arrives at a polling station in Shahr-e-Quds, near Tehran, Iran, on July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Voter Yagoub Mohammadi, 27, said he voted for Jalili both times.
“He is clean and does not rely on those in power within the system,” Mohammadi said. “He represents those who do not have access to power.”
Voter Samira Sharafi, a 34-year-old mother of a young child, said she had voted for Qalibaf in the first round but instead voted for the reformist Pezeshkian, whom she described as more “experienced” than Jalili.
Calls for a boycott have been made, including by jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, but in the absence of a widely recognised opposition movement active inside or outside Iran, Iranian voters appeared to have decided last week not to take part in the polls themselves.
State television showed footage of low-key queues at several polling stations across the country as polls opened on Friday.
As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those seeking radical change will be barred from voting, and the vote itself will not be monitored by internationally recognized observers.
Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi, who is overseeing the elections, announced that all polling stations were opened at 8 a.m. local time.
Khamenei cast one of the first votes in the election from his home, with television cameras and photographers filming him placing his ballot in a ballot box.
“I hear that people’s enthusiasm is stronger than before,” Khamenei said. “God willing, people will vote and choose the best candidate.”
But Khamenei said Wednesday that those who did not vote last week were not opposed to Shiite theocracy in the country.
“There are reasons behind this issue that sociologists and political actors should look into,” he said.
More than 61 million Iranians aged 18 and over are eligible to vote, of which 18 million are between 18 and 30. Elections are due to end at 6pm local time but traditionally are extended until midnight to increase voter turnout.
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Friday’s election will be Iran’s second presidential runoff since 1979. The first was in 2005, when hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Under Ahmadinejad, Iran faced international sanctions over its nuclear program and the 2009 Green Movement protests and the crackdown that suppressed them.
Pezeshkian’s supporters have warned that Jalili would set up a “Taliban”-style government in Tehran, while Jalili has accused him of waging a campaign of fear.
The election came after a helicopter crash on May 19 killed President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, and the country’s foreign minister. Raisi was a protégé of Ayatollah Khamenei and was seen as a possible successor to the supreme leader. Yet many know him for his role in Iran’s 1988 mass executions and in the bloody crackdown on dissent that followed protests in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who was detained by police for allegedly wearing the mandatory hijab, or headscarf, improperly.
