Iran to hold runoff election as no candidate secures 50% of votes

Iran is headed for a runoff election.

On Saturday (Jun. 29), an election spokesman announced that of the 24.5 million votes cast, no candidate secured more than 50%.

Former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili got 9.4 million votes while heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian got 10.4 million.

The two will face again on July 5.

More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 are eligible to vote. However, despite calls by the theocracy’s supreme leader, most Iranians didn’t vote.

The overall turnout was 39.9%, according to provisional results.

Saeed Jalili is known for fighting in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. He served as a deputy minister.

Masoud Pezeshkian,is a lawmaker and is a heart surgeon who has the support of some pro-reformers.

Iranians elected their last president in 2021 however Ebrahim Raisi, died in the May 19 helicopter crash that also killed 7 senior officials.

There’s been only one runoff presidential election in Iran’s history: in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bested former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.