ALBAWABA - In the 14th Iranian presidential election, no candidate got over 50% of the vote, leading to a runoff between reformist Masoud pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili.
At a press conference held at the Ministry of Interior's election center, spokesperson Mohsen Islami announced the completion of vote counting. Islami explained that 24,535,185 votes were collected from 59,000 national polling stations.
pezeshkian won 10,415,191 votes, capturing 42.5% of the overall vote, with Jalili coming in with 9,473,298 votes, accounting for 38.6%. As such, pezeshkian and Jalili will now go into the second-round vote on July 5th.
Other presidential candidates, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, gained 13.8% and 0.8% of the national vote, respectively. The voter turnout was about 40%.
An AA correspondent in Tehran sends two profiles of candidates who will be in the runoff: reformist Masoud pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili.
Masoud pezeshkian
Reformist politician Masoud pezeshkian was born in Mahabad, Iran, to Iranian Turk parents on September 29, 1954. He attended Tabriz Medical University. Fighter medic, he joined a detachment during Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). Following a Ph.D. in general surgery from Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, pezeshkian studied cardiac surgery in 1993. His presidency of Tabriz University Medical Sciences lasted from 1994 to 1999. He was Deputy Minister of Health under President Mohammad Khatami for four years starting in 1997. He was health minister from 2001 to 2005. He has five times represented Tabriz in Parliament since 2008. He was Iranian Parliament Deputy Speaker 2016–2020. pezeshkian withdrew his 2013 presidential bid. The Guardian Council denied his 2021 presidential run. He won the Tabriz parliamentary election as the frontrunner. Mohammad Khatami, Hassan Rouhani, and Zarif supported pezeshkian, the only reformist candidate. His organization opposes ethnic and sect discrimination, hijab mandates, and economic and justice reforms.
Saeed Jalili
Hard-line leader Born September 6, 1965, in Mashhad, Saeed Jalili. His mother is Ardabilan. Tehran's Imam Sadegh University educated Jalili in politics. Working in the Basij, the volunteer arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Jalili lost his right leg in the 1987 Karbala-5 Operation. After the war, he taught at his old department and joined the Iranian Foreign Ministry in 1989. He advised Khamenei and the SNC in 2001 and 2002. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed him Foreign Ministry Deputy Minister for European and American Affairs in 2005. Jalili became Supreme National Security Council Secretary in 2007, managing Iran-West nuclear discussions. Despite his slogan "Turning Threats into Opportunities," many believe Jalili's administration witnessed three UN Security Council resolutions against Iran and severe US and European sanctions. Jalili was suddenly reinstalled in the Security Council by Khamenei after Rouhani removed him in 2013. He joined the Expediency Discernment Council. His political science teaching started at Imam Sadegh University in 2000. He finished third in 2013's presidential election with 11%. After this loss, he offered a "Shadow Government" method to help Rouhani, but few embraced it. To support Raisi, Jalili withdrew his presidential run in 2021. Khamenei's Supreme National Security Council representative is cautious with the West. He wants stability.
