The seesawing results released early Saturday saw the race between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liner Saeed Jalili, with the lead switching between them while a runoff vote seemed likely.
This was confirmed by Iranian state television, which gave no immediate indication that either candidate could win Friday’s election outright, potentially setting up a second round of voting to replace late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.
It did not even provide figures yet for voter turnout – key information on whether Iran’s electorate supports its Shiite theocracy after years of economic crisis and mass protests.
In just over 19 million votes counted so far, Pezeshkian had 8.3 million while Jalili received 7.18 million votes.
One more candidate, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a conservative Parliament speaker, had some 2.67 million votes. Mostafa Pourmohammadi who is a Shiite cleric has gathered around 158000 votes.
The voters have had to choose from three hardliners or little-known reformist Pezeshkian who is also a cardiac surgeon. Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, women as well as advocates of radical change have been disqualified from participating in elections while this one will be held without international monitors observing it.
The voting took place against the backdrop of increasing tensions across the Middle East due to Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza Strip
Earlier in April this year Iran made its first-ever direct attack on Israel over Gaza war while Iran-backed militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Yemen’s Houthi rebels are involved in and escalated their attacks during this ongoing confrontation..
Iran continues enriching uranium at near weapons-grade levels and possesses enough material to construct several nuclear bombs if desired.
There were appeals for boycotts including from Narges Mohammadi who is detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The daughter said Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests, who is still under house arrest refuses to vote as well as his wife.
Some have also criticized Pezeshkian for being another government-approved candidate. “We’re moving toward the same level that you guys did in 1979,” said a woman from a Pezeshkian documentary shown on state television about her own generation and its animosity with government.
According to Iranian law, any presidential winner must have received over half of all votes cast. If not, there will be a second round run-off between the top two on following week. Moreover, Iran has only had one run-offs in its history which happened in 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prevailed over former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who campaigned against him.
Raisi was 63 at the time of his death during an helicopter crash on May 19 together with the country’s foreign minister and several others. He has been viewed as Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s protégé and possible successor. However, many people remember him from widespread executions carried out by Iran in1988 and bloody repression after Mahsa Amini’s death who was arrested due to inappropriate wearing of hijab or headscarf because he was responsible for them.
In spite of the recent disturbance, however, there was just one recorded incident during the election. According to IRNA News that is controlled by government, gunmen opened fire on a van conveying ballot boxes in Sistan and Baluchestan, an insecure province situated in the southeast of Iran; this attack ended up with two policemen killed and some other people got injured. Also it is known for recurrent clashes between security forces and Jaish al-Adl group as well as drug traffickers.
