Current:Home > MarketsModerate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election-LoTradeCoin
Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election
View Date:2024-12-24 07:10:30
Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran's runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country's mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic.
Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran's Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian's modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili's 13.5 million in Friday's election.
Supporters of Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and longtime lawmaker, entered the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, a hard-line former nuclear negotiator.
But Pezeshkian's win still sees Iran at a delicate moment, with tensions high in the Mideast over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Iran's advancing nuclear program, and a looming U.S. election that could put any chance of a detente between Tehran and Washington at risk.
The first round of voting June 28 saw the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iranian officials have long pointed to turnout as a sign of support for the country's Shiite theocracy, which has been under strain after years of sanctions crushing Iran's economy, mass demonstrations and intense crackdowns on all dissent.
Government officials up to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei predicted a higher participation rate as voting got underway, with state television airing images of modest lines at some polling centers across the country.
However, online videos purported to show some polls empty while a survey of several dozen sites in the capital, Tehran, saw light traffic amid a heavy security presence on the streets.
The election came amid heightened regional tensions. In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Iran is also enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build several nuclear weapons, should it choose to do so. And while Khamenei remains the final decision-maker on matters of state, whichever man ends up winning the presidency could bend the country's foreign policy toward either confrontation or collaboration with the West.
The campaign also repeatedly touched on what would happen if former President Donald Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, won the November election. Iran has held indirect talks with President Joe Biden's administration, though there's been no clear movement back toward constraining Tehran's nuclear program for the lifting of economic sanctions.
More than 61 million Iranians over the age of 18 were eligible to vote, with about 18 million of them between 18 and 30. Voting was to end at 6 p.m. but was extended until midnight to boost participation.
The late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash, was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor as supreme leader.
Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
- In:
- Iran
veryGood! (1553)
Related
- Lee Zeldin, Trump’s EPA Pick, Brings a Moderate Face to a Radical Game Plan
- Would you buy this AI? See the newest technology advancing beauty, medicine, and more
- Lynn Yamada Davis, Cooking with Lynja TikTok chef, dies at age 67
- Iowa’s sparsely populated northwest is a key GOP caucus battleground for both Trump and DeSantis
- Burger King is giving away a million Whoppers for $1: Here's how to get one
- Tom Shales, longtime TV critic, dies at 79
- Maldives leader demands removal of Indian military from the archipelago by mid-March amid spat
- Spoilers! Why 'American Fiction' ends with an 'important' scene of Black representation
- Tennessee suspect in dozens of rapes is convicted of producing images of child sex abuse
- Auli’i Cravalho explains why she won't reprise role as Moana in live-action Disney remake
Ranking
- How to Build Your Target Fall Capsule Wardrobe: Budget-Friendly Must-Haves for Effortless Style
- Defending champ Novak Djokovic fends off Dino Prizmic to advance at Australian Open
- Maldives leader demands removal of Indian military from the archipelago by mid-March amid spat
- Horoscopes Today, January 12, 2024
- Megan Fox Is Pregnant, Expecting Baby With Machine Gun Kelly
- ‘Mean Girls’ takes 1st place at the box office. So fetch.
- Why Dan Levy Turned Down Ken Role in Barbie
- Authorities say 4 people found dead in another suspected drowning of migrants off northern France.
Recommendation
-
Why Kathy Bates Decided Against Reconstruction Surgery After Double Mastectomy for Breast Cancer
-
4 Ukrainian citizens were among those captured when a helicopter went down in Somalia this week
-
More stunning NFL coach firings to come? Keep an eye on high-pressure wild-card games
-
See how people are trying to stay warm for Chiefs vs. Dolphins at frigid Arrowhead Stadium
-
Stocks soared on news of Trump's election. Bonds sank. Here's why.
-
SAG Awards nominations for 2024 announced: See the full list of nominees
-
Why Dan Levy Turned Down Ken Role in Barbie
-
As Israel-Hamas war reaches 100-day mark, here’s the conflict by numbers