On Saturday, June 29th, Iran announced it will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, as the initial vote failed to produce a clear winner among the leading candidates in what was the lowest turnout poll in the history of the Islamic Republic, AP News reports on June 29th.
The election this Friday, June 28th, will feature reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian facing off against hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Read more: Iran: Approves Six Presidential Candidates, Blocks Larijani and Ahmadinejad
Iranian law mandates that a candidate must secure over 50% of the votes to win. If no candidate achieves this majority, the top two contenders move to a runoff held a week later. Iran has only had one previous runoff presidential election, which occurred in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, former President.
Eslami noted that the Guardian Council would need to give formal approval, but the outcome did not face any immediate challenges from the race’s contenders.
Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesman, announced the results during a news conference broadcast by Iranian state television. He reported that out of 24.5 million votes cast, Pezeshkian received 10.4 million, Jalili garnered 9.4 million, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf (Parliament Speaker) secured 3.3 million, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi (Shiite cleric) had over 206,000 votes.
AP News and agencies