After Pezeshkian and Jalili won the first round of the presidential election in Iran, the two candidates began campaigning this Saturday to compete once again.
As Iran’s presidential election went to a run-off round following Friday’s turnout, Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili began their election campaigns this Saturday and the two rivals have four days to convince Iranians to vote for them on this coming Friday.
Reformist Pezeskhian won the first round of the presidential race with 42.5 percent of the vote, followed by hardliner Jalili who got 38.6 percent. But as Pezeshkian couldn’t manage to get 50 percent plus one vote needed for an outright victory, he now has to compete once again with Jalili for the office of the presidency.
According to Article 117 of Iran’s Constitution: “The president is elected by an absolute majority of the votes of the participants, but if none of the candidates get such a majority in the first round, a second round of voting will be held on Friday of the following week. In the second round, only two of the candidates who got most of the votes in the first round will be allowed to participate.”
Article 13 of the Presidential Election Law of Iran also foresees the second round of elections and states: “If none of the candidates get an absolute majority in the first round, the election will be two-staged, which means the two candidates who got most of the votes in the first round will be allowed to compete in the second election.”
According to Article 67 of the same law, the campaigning activities of the two competing candidates in the second round of the presidential election “will start from the date of the official announcement of the final results of the first round of the election and will continue until 24 hours before the start of the second round of voting.”
