Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claims, “Second round of the presidential election is very important”, reported in The International News.
Voting polls launched on Friday for Iran’s runoff presidential election, the interior ministry claimed, indenting progressive contender Masoud Pezeshkian against Saeed Jalili in the competition to win Ebrahim Raisi, who deceased in a May helicopter crash.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei cast his vote when the voting polls opened at 8 am, Iranian TV presented.
“We are starting the second round of the 14th presidential election to choose the future president from among the two candidates across 58,638 polling stations in the country and all stations abroad,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi claimed, as per Iranian TV.
The vote appears against the backdrop of heightened regional pressures over the battle in Gaza, Iran’s conflict with the West over its nuclear programme and famous discontent at the governance of the country’s sanctions-hit finance.
In the previous week’s first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only progressive allowed to appear as a candidate, succeeded in the biggest number of ballots, around 42%, while the former nuclear negotiator Jalili appeared in second region with 39%, as per representatives from Iran’s elections authority.
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Only 40% of Iran’s 61 million capable voters cast their ballot — the minimum participation rate in any presidential election since 1979.
On Wednesday, Khamenei summoned for a higher participation rate in the runoff.
“The second round of the presidential election is very important,” he claimed in a video shown by Iranian TV.
He said turning over was “not as expected” in the first round but that it was not a movement “against the system.”
Last week’s vote noticed the conservative parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf appear in third place with 13.8%, while cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi garnered less than 1%.
Iran’s presidential election was arranged for 2025 but was scheduled earlier by the death of Raisi in a May helicopter crash.
Published in The International News
