The Interior Ministry said Saturday that only 40 percent of more than 61 million eligible Iranians voted, a new low in presidential elections since the country’s 1979 revolution.
Aggregate data from the election headquarters at the ministry showed that moderate Pezeshkian received more than 10.41 million votes out of more than 24.5 million total ballots cast, trailing former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili with 9.47 million votes.
This is only the second week since the 1979 revolution that a presidential election has gone to a second round.
Conservative Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has dropped out of the race with 3.38 million votes and Conservative Islamic chief Mustafa Pourmohammadi has dropped out of the race with 206,397 votes. Two alternative applicants, Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani and government figure Emir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, dropped out.
Ghalibaf, Zakani and Ghazizadeh called on their supporters to vote for Jalili in the upcoming Friday vote to ensure the victory of the “Revolution Front”.
The snap election on Friday took place during a constitutionally mandated 50-day period to elect a new president, after Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, along with seven others, died in a helicopter skirmish on May 19.
Like every first election in its four-year life, Friday’s vote saw a low turnout, but the final numbers were far lower than the 45-53 percent suggested by polling.
Raisi was appointed to the post with 48.8 percent, the lowest voter turnout for the presidency in the Islamic Republic’s more than four-decade history. At slightly below 41%, the parliamentary elections held in March and May had the lowest turnout in any primary election since Iran’s 1979 revolution.
Voter apathy comes as many are worried about 2022-23 following deadly national protests, and as the economy grapples with myriad challenges, including mismanagement and over 40 percent inflation due to United States sanctions.
Iranian foreign policy expert Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh attributed the low turnout to the reformist camp’s failure to turn on the field of voters who typically vote for it and increase participation.
Despite the support of veteran reformists such as former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, Pezeshkian “failed to arouse the part of society that usually happens when we have above 50 percent turnout – which is usually from the reformist side.” Comes”, Gholamzadeh informed Al Jazeera.
“And I would interpret it as people saying they want change,” Gholamzadeh said.
When Iranians go to the polls on July 5, there is likely to be a better turnout as it could provide a clear choice between two opposing camps. This may generally benefit Pezeshkian, who will seek additional votes to defeat the mixed forces of the conservative and radical camps.
Pezeshkian, a prominent press presser and former fitness minister, is sponsored by former centrist and reformist presidents and alternative prominent figures. He has promised to restore the country’s 2015 nuclear deal with global powers and lift sanctions as a way to bridge the growing gap between the public and the established order.
A senior member of the Grand National Security Council, Jalili has promised to curb corruption and mismanagement as well as reduce inflation to single digits and boost financial growth to 8 percent. He advocates a tough stance towards the West and its allies.
Pezeshkian was the only one of six publicly licensed people to run through the Original Council, the constitutional body that screens all applicants.
His supporters have presented him not as a surprise ally but as a potential president who could build better technology and claiming Jalili’s victory would signal a major letdown.
Jalili’s name is linked to years of nuclear negotiations between the late 2000s and early 2010s, which ultimately ended with Iran’s isolation globally and the imposition of UN Security Council sanctions.
The radical meat presser, who has been trying to become president for more than a decade, blames the camp supporting Pezeshkian for compromising the country’s nuclear program as part of a landmark accord signed in 2015, which Later rejected by US President Donald Trump. In 2018.
Accusing his opponent of incompetence, Jalili and other conservatives have claimed that Pezeshkian’s victory would mark only the third term of office for former centrist President Hassan Rouhani.
Two security forces were killed in an attack on their car after voting concluded in the southern Sistan-Baluche province. According to environmental media, armed attackers targeted a vehicle that was returning the local governor to the area.
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