Massoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili Advance for a Second Presidential Runoff in Iranian Elections

Iranians cast their votes for the presidential election at a polling station in Tehran, Iran, 28 June 2024. Iran holds presidential elections on 28 June, following the death of late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on 19. Photo: EFE/EPA/STRINGER

June 29, 2024 Hour: 12:45 pm

Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili will contest the Iranian presidency in a run-off election after neither candidate won 50% of the vote in the first, the country’s Electoral Commission reported on Saturday.

Mohsen Eslami, spokeperson of the Electoral entity, said that President Ebrahim Raisi’s successor, who lost his life in a helicopter crash on May 19, will be defined on July 5, according to the scheduled.

RELATED:

Voting Starts for Iran’s 14th Presidential Election

“None of the candidates has obtained an absolute majority of the votes,” Election Commission spokesman Mohsen Eslami said at a televised press conference. “A second round will be held as required by law, which will be on July 5,” added Eslami, who announced that 24,535,185 people voted, representing 40% of the electorate.

After counting 24,535,185 votes, Pezeshkian won with 10,415,991 votes while Jalili had 9,473,298. On the other hand, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, gained 3,383,340 votes while Mostafa Pourmohammadi gained 206,397, the electoral authorities said.

With almost 25 million votes tallied, the competition has intensified between the top two Iranian candidates, Saeed Jalili and Masoud Pezeshkian, in #Iran's 2024 presidential elections.

In light of this, the Presidential Elections Committee in the #Iranian Ministry of Interior… pic.twitter.com/vSVYEjIIuf
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 29, 2024

Third placer Bagher Qalibaf, current parliament speaker, have rushed to said in a statement that he respects Pezeshkian, but he backs Jalili and called on others to vote for him in the runoff vote, the Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Qalibaf said he is concerned about some of members of Pezeshkian’s staff, which he associated to a movement he blamed for economic and political problems and hailed the Friday election for manifesting the Islamic Republic’s belief in religious democracy and allowing different movements with different tastes to compete fairly.

According to the Iranian constitution, the president holds “the highest official position in the country after the Supreme Leader”. Its responsibilities include implementing the constitution and acting as a liaison between the judiciary, the executive and the legislature. The President is elected for a term of four years and may not serve more than two terms
consecutive.