Iranians heading to presidential runoff

TEHRAN

Iran’s snap presidential election is set head to a second vote on July 5, with a reformist and conservative hardliner facing off to replace Ebrahim Raisi amid unprecedented voter apathy.

After none of the four initial candidates secured more than 50 percent of the vote on June 28, Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili will face off after leading the pack in the first-round last week, in an election cycle brought forward by the death of president Ebrahim Raisi in a May helicopter crash.

Pezeshkian won 42.4 percent of the votes, while Jalili came second with 38.6 percent.

The first round, however, saw the lowest voter turnout for a presidential election since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, highlighting the discontent among a population losing faith in the country’s ruling clerical establishment.

Only 40 percent of Iran's 61 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the first round.

Conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who won 13.8 percent of the votes in the first round and did not qualify for the runoff, urged supporters to back Jalili in the runoff.

Two ultraconservative candidates who had dropped out of the race also threw their weight behind Jalili.

Reformist figures including former president Mohammad Khatami have rallied behind Pezeshkian.

During his final rally late on July 3, Jalili promised "strength and progress" if elected, as posters of Raisi adorned the walls, bearing the slogan: "A world of opportunities, Iran leaps forward."

At an open-air stadium elsewhere in the capital, Pezeshkian made the case for "unity and cohesion,” his supporters' chants invoking another Khatami.

Pezeshkian, who has vowed to "fully" oppose police patrols enforcing the mandatory headscarf and called to ease long-standing internet restrictions, was speaking before a crowd women in colourful hijabs, mingled with others, draped in traditional black chadors, alongside men.