Current:Home > FinanceModerate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election -Aspire Money Growth
Moderate Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election
View
Date:2025-04-13 15:22:04
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! (8)
Related
- B.A. Parker is learning the banjo
- Live updates | Israel plans to keep fighting as other countries call for a cease-fire in Gaza
- Our 12 favorite moments of 2023
- A New UN “Roadmap” Lays Out a Global Vision for Food Security and Emissions Reductions
- Military service academies see drop in reported sexual assaults after alarming surge
- The Fate of Love Is Blind Revealed
- Australians prepare for their first cyclone of the season
- An asylum-seeker in UK has died onboard a moored barge housing migrants
- The White House is cracking down on overdraft fees
- Watch soldier dad surprise family members one after another as they walk in
Ranking
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- U.S. F-16 fighter jet crashes off South Korea; pilot ejects and is rescued
- Kat Dennings marries Andrew W.K., joined by pals Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song for ceremony
- Baby boy killed in Connecticut car crash days before 1st birthday
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- State Department circumvents Congress, approves $106 million sale of tank ammo to Israel
- Online sports betting to start in Vermont in January
- Biden takes a tougher stance on Israel’s ‘indiscriminate bombing’ of Gaza’
Recommendation
Hackers hit Rhode Island benefits system in major cyberattack. Personal data could be released soon
Georgia election worker says she feared for her life over fraud lies in Giuliani defamation case
Most stressful jobs 2023: Judges, nurses and video editors all rank in top 10
ManningCast features two 'Monday Night Football' games at once: What went right and wrong
Bodycam footage shows high
Polish far-right lawmaker extinguishes Hanukkah candle in parliament
A New UN “Roadmap” Lays Out a Global Vision for Food Security and Emissions Reductions
Zac Efron shouts out 'High School Musical,' honors Matthew Perry at Walk of Fame ceremony