Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian has emerged victorious in the Iranian presidential run-off polls, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
The polls, held on Friday, saw Pezeshkian going up against Saeed Jalili in a closely contested race to become the country’s next president.
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With the turnout reported to be around 50% on Friday, around 30 million Iranians cast their vote of which Pezeshkian received more than 16 million, whereas Jalili secured around 13 million votes, whereas around 600,000 ballots were declared “spoiled”.
The run-off elections were announced last month after none of the four candidates managed to secure more than 50% of the votes amid a historic low turnout of around 40% — the lowest yet in the history of the country.
In the first round of polls, Pezeshkian won the largest number of votes, around 42%, while Jalili — a conservative former nuclear negotiator who is currently serving as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative in the Supreme National Security Council — came second with around 39%, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority.
The presidential elections, which were not due until 2025, were brought forward after late president Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash last month.
The polls coincide with escalating regional tension due to the war between Israel Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing nuclear programme.
