Parisa Hafezi
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will hold a second round of presidential elections on July 5, the interior ministry said on Saturday, after neither top candidate received more than 50% of the vote in Friday’s polls.
After Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, the vote to replace him ended up being a tight race between the only moderate among four candidates and the supreme leader’s hardline protégés.
Moderate lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian leads by more than 10 million votes, with more than 24 million votes counted, ahead of hardline diplomat Saeed Jalili, according to provisional results released by the ministry. More than 9.4 million votes were counted.
Power in Iran ultimately lies in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, so the outcome would not herald any major policy shifts in Iran’s nuclear program or its support for militias in the Middle East.
But the president is responsible for the day-to-day management of the government and can influence the tone of Iran’s policy.
