DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Preliminary results from Iran’s presidential election released Saturday showed reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative Saeed Jalili leading the way, with a runoff possible.
The initial results, reported on Iranian state television, did not put either man in a position to win Friday’s vote at once, which could set the stage for a second round in which it is determined who will replace the deceased. conservative president Ebrahim Raisi.
Iran has not yet offered voter turnout figures, a crucial component of whether the Iranian electorate supports its Shiite theocracy after years of economic turmoil and mass protests.
After counting more than 12 million votes, Pezeshkian had more than 5 million while Jalili had 4.8 million.
Another candidate, hardline parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, had 1.6 million votes. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had more than 95,000 votes.
Voters had before them the three conservative candidates and Pezeshkian, a little-known cardiac surgeon. Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, women and people calling for a radical change in government have not been allowed to run. The vote will not be monitored by international observers.
Iranian law requires the winner to obtain more than 50% of the votes cast. If not, the two candidates with the most votes go to a second round a week later. There has only been one second round in Iran’s history: in 2005, when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defeated former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Raisi, 63, died on May 19 in a helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and other officials. He was considered a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a potential successor.
