Campaigning Ends for Presidential Runoff in Iran

Iran will hold the runoff presidential election on Friday as the June 28 vote saw none of the four candidates securing an absolute majority.

Former health minister and senior lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian and former nuclear negotiator and chief of the top security body Saeed Jalili are in the race after securing the most votes among others in the first round.

Of 24.5 million votes cast last Friday, Pezeshkian, a reformist contender, garnered 10.4 million votes while Jalili, a principalist candidate, received 9.4 million votes.

The two candidates launched their campaign for runoff on Sunday and had intense campaign rallies and meetings. They took part in two back-to-back televised presidential debates and other TV programs.

Spokesman for Iran’s Constitutional Council Hadi Tahan Nazif on Sunday validated the results of the first round of the presidential election.

An estimated 61 million people were eligible to vote inside and outside the country, according to the Interior Ministry. And some 60, 000 polling stations were set up across the country. Iranian expatriates can also vote in over a hundred countries.

Mohsen Eslami, the spokesperson for the country’s election headquarters, said on Thursday that the number of voting stations in the runoff is the same as the first round but added that the number may increase in some constituencies if necessary, Press TV reported. 

He said preliminary results will be announced as early as Saturday morning.

The countrywide election is taking place a year ahead of schedule, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi passed away in May.

A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on May 19, killing the president, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and six others.