Iran To Hold Run-Off Presidential Election Between Masoud Pezeshkian And Saeed Jalili

Iran will hold a runoff presidential election next week, as none of the four candidates secured more than 50% of the vote in Friday’s election. In the second round of the election on July 5, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian will face conservative Saeed Jalili. According to Iran's law, a winner must receive more than 50% of all votes cast. If not, the top two candidates will advance to a runoff a week later.

The runoff election was announced by election spokesperson Mohsen Eslami in a news conference carried by Iranian state television. The election spokesperson said that after counting over 24 million votes, Masoud Pezeshkian received 10.5 million votes, and his closest competitor, Saeed Jalili, came in second with 9.4 million votes. Meanwhile, Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf received only 3.3 million votes, and former Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi got just over 206,000 votes.

The results will be reviewed by the Guardian Council before the two candidates start campaigning again. According to an Al Jazeera report, this is only the second time since the 1979 revolution that a presidential election has gone to a second round in Iran. The presidential election took place in the country after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on May 19.