Early, seesawing results released Saturday in Iran’s presidential election put the race between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liner Saeed Jalili, with the lead trading between the two men while a runoff vote appeared likely,
AP reports.
The early results, reported by Iranian state television, did not initially put either man in a position to win Friday’s election outright, potentially setting the stage for a runoff election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.
It also did not offer any turnout figures for the race yet — a crucial component of whether Iran’s electorate backs its Shiite theocracy after years of economic turmoil and mass protests.
After counting over 14 million votes, Pezeshkian had 5.9 million while Jalili held 5.5 million.
Another candidate, hard-line parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, had some 1.89 million votes. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 111,900 votes.
Voters faced a choice between the three hard-line candidates and the little-known reformist Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon. As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from running, while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.
