Polls opened across Iran this Friday morning to hold the runoff round of the presidential election.
Iranians began voting this Friday morning in a runoff election to choose either conservative Saeed Jalili or reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as their next president.
“We are starting the second round of the 14th presidential election to choose the future president from among the two candidates across 58,638 polling stations in the country and all stations abroad,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, according to Iran’s state TV.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was among the first who cast his ballot when the polls opened at 08:00 am local time.
In the first round of the election that was held on June 28, none of the four competitors could get the absolute majority of votes (50%+1 votes). This put the election to a runoff round, where Pezeshkian and Jalili, who got the most votes, are now competing.
According to figures from Iran’s elections authority, Pezeshkian won the largest number of ballots, around 42 percent, while the former nuclear negotiator Jalili came in second place with 39 percent,
As the turnout in the first round of the election was 40%, it still remains unclear how many Iranians will take part in Friday’s poll. This past Wednesday, Khamenei called for a higher turnout in the runoff; “The second round of the presidential election is very important,” he said in a video broadcast on state TV.
Iran’s presidential election was originally set for 2025. However, the sudden death of late president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash this May, put the election one year forward.
