Iran reformist Pezeshkian wins presidential election
The Peninsula
Tehran: Iran s reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election against Saeed Jalili, the interior ministry said....
Tehran: Iran's reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday won a runoff presidential election against Saeed Jalili, the interior ministry said.
Pezeshkian got more than 16 million votes and Jalili more than 13 million out of about 30 million votes cast, electoral authority spokesman Mohsen Eslami said, adding that voter turnout stood at 49.8 percent.
The election, called early after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, followed a first round marked by a historically low turnout last week.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority, had called for a higher turnout in the runoff, emphasising the importance of the election.
He said the first round turnout was lower than expected, but added that it was not an act "against the system".