Presidential Runoff Held in Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran is holding runoff presidential election on Friday, July 5, after no candidate could garner over 50% of the votes last week.
As the presidential race enters home stretch, polling stations across Iran opened at 8 am local time on Friday.
Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, the two candidates with the highest number of votes, are facing off in the showdown.
A total of 24,535,185 votes were cast in the last week’s polls, translating into a turnout of 39.92%, as over 61,452,000 people were eligible to vote.
The election takes 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.
Around 59,000 polling stations are set up across the country, including thousands of mobile stations.
Hundreds of polling stations have been also set up in the foreign countries to enable the Iranian expatriates to take part in the election.
Forces from the Police, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Basij are tasked with ensuring security of the election.
The new administration, the 14th one after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, will hold office for four years.
