Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian beats hard-liner radical Saeed Jalili in Iran's presidential runoff election

In a political shift, reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian triumphed over hard-liner radical Saeed Jalili in Iran's presidential runoff election. Pezeshkian, who campaigned on strengthening relations with the West and easing the country's mandatory headscarf laws, secured 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million in the election held on Friday. 

Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and lawmaker from Western Iran, will be the first president from that region in decades. He has pledged to maintain Iran's Shiite theocracy and supports Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the ultimate authority on state matters. Jalili has pressed for harsher penalties for women who don't properly cover their hair and fought for the Iranian state Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the 1980s, per the Wall Street Journal. 

Following his victory, Pezeshkian's supporters celebrated in the streets. The president-elect addressed reporters after visiting the mausoleum of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. "In this election, I didn’t give you false promises. I did not lie,” Pezeshkian said, according to the Associated Press. “It’s been many years after the revolution that we come to the podium, we make promises and we fail to fulfill them. This is the biggest problem we have.”

With a 49.6 percent voter turnout, approximately 30 million Iranians cast their ballots in an election conducted without internationally recognized monitors. The election saw over 600,000 voided votes, which are ballots submitted that reject both candidates as a form of protest.

Despite this, Khamenei praised the voter turnout, though it fell short of expectations. He attributed the lower turnout to a boycott campaign “orchestrated by the enemies of the Iranian nation to induce despair and a feeling of hopelessness.” Khamenei added, “I would like to recommend Dr. Pezeshkian, the elected president, put his trust in God, the Compassionate, and set his vision on high, bright horizons."

While Khamenei retains final authority on state matters, Pezeshkian will have influence over Iran's foreign policy, potentially easing conflicts with the West and Israel. However, despite Pezeshkian’s win in the election the US State Department expressed skepticism about any substantial change in Iran's policies.

“We have no expectation these elections will lead to fundamental change in Iran’s direction or more respect for the human rights of its citizens,” the State Department said in response to the election results. “As the candidates themselves have said, Iranian policy is set by the supreme leader.”