Iran Holds Presidential Election Runoff

AFP/APP

Tehran: Iran holds a presidential election runoff Friday between Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili following a record-low turnout in the first round.

The vote comes amid heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme and popular discontent over the state of Iran’s sanctions-hit economy.

In last week’s first round, Pezeshkian, who was the only reformist permitted to stand, won the largest number of ballots, around 42 percent, while the former nuclear negotiator Jalili came in second place with 39 percent, according to figures from Iran’s elections authority

.Only 40 percent of Iran’s 61 million eligible voters turned up at the polls — the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

On Wednesday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in the country, called for a higher turnout in the runoff.

“The second round of the presidential election is very important,” he said in a video carried by state TV.