Politics Hardliners versus reformers: Close race in Iran election

According to the first partial results, there are signs of a close race in Iran between moderate politician Massud Peseshkian and hardliner Said Jalili. Following the counting of around twelve million votes, Peseshkian received around 5 million votes and Jalili 4.9 million. The incumbent parliamentary speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf followed in third place with around 1.6 million votes, as reported by state radio with reference to the electoral authority. The fourth candidate, the cleric Mostafa Purmohammadi, only received around 95,000 votes.

Around 61 million voters were called upon to elect a new head of government on Friday. The polling stations were open until late in the evening after being extended several times by the Ministry of the Interior. If none of the candidates win more than 50 percent of the vote, the two strongest candidates will go into a run-off on July 5.

However, most of the country's inhabitants, especially young people, have lost faith in major domestic political change. Some activists and the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi have called for a boycott of the election. In the most recent parliamentary elections in March, voter turnout reached a record low of around 40 percent. Turnout is traditionally higher in presidential elections.

SDA