Reformist Pezeshkian to be Iran’s next president

Masoud Pezeshkian, the sole reformist candidate approved to run in this year's presidential election, was confirmed as the Iran's next head of state after coming out on top in Friday's second-round run-off.

A health minister under former president Mohammad Khatami, Pezeshkian secured nearly 16.4mn votes, or around 54pc of the total 30.5mn votes cast, according to results issued by the interior ministry early on Saturday. His rival, the ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, got 13.5mn votes.

Pezeshkian and Jalili faced off after none of the four candidates contesting the election managed to secure the 50pc of the vote needed to win outright one week prior.

Pezeshkian came out on top in that first round with 42pc of the vote, while Jalili came in a close second with 39pc.

Iran's current parliamentary speaker, conservative Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who was contesting his fourth presidential election, came in at a distant third with 14pc of the vote, while former cabinet minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, also a conservative, secured less than 1pc.

Coming at a time of growing apathy among Iranians, evidenced by the historically low participation in recent presidential and parliamentary elections, turnout became a major focus ahead of the election.

Turnout in the previous presidential election in 2021 was just under 49pc, down from 73pc in 2017, while turnout in parliamentary elections in March was just 42pc. The 49pc turnout in 2021 was the lowest for a presidential election since the inception of the Islamic Republic.

And yet, despite the surprise inclusion of a reformist to contest this year's election, turnout in the first round plummeted further to reach a new low of 39.8pc, in the clearest sign yet that large swaths of the Iranian electorate have lost faith in the Islamic Republic and feel there is little value to voting.

This was despite a call from the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just days prior, for people to come out in force to participate in the election.

A different way

Ahead of the run-off, many put Pezeshkian's chances of victory down to his ability to galvanize and encourage at least some of those that initially chose not to participate, to turn out to vote.

And to an extent, the numbers suggest that his efforts did not go unrewarded, with the turnout in the second round rising to 49.8pc, which, although still low, and only marginally above the 2021 turnout, represented a significant increase over the first round.

In Pezeshkian, Iran is now poised to have its first reformist president for almost two decades. And with the country facing myriad external and internal challenges — from regional security to an economy ravaged by years of harsh economic sanctions reimposed by the US in 2018 — he will have his work cut out for him.

And although in Iran the supreme leader, not the president, dictates policy and has the final say, Pezeshkian will still have an important role to play in determining how that policy is ultimately implemented.

In his many interviews and debates on the campaign trail, Pezeshkian underlined the need for a change of tack on a range of domestic and external issues, from the role of the morality police, the unity of Iran's law enforcement tasked with enforcing mandatory rules on the dress code, to Iran's engagement with the west to lift the sanctions that have devastated Iran's economy.

Pezeshkian, crucially, has signalled he will revive efforts to return to the 2015 nuclear deal that was brokered between Iran and world powers, including the US, with a view to lifting sanctions. His opponent, Jalili, appeared diametrically opposed to reviving talks, arguing that Iran's strengthened relations with its allies to the east, China and Russia, were serving Iran's interests more than the nuclear deal ever did.

Iran has not yet set a concrete date for Pezeshkian's inauguration, but Alireza Salimi, a member of parliament, told state media today that it would be held before the end of the first half of the next Iranian month, Mordad, which would correspond with 5 August.

By Nader Itayim