Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election, beats Jalili

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

By Arsalan Shahla and Golnar Motevalli

Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist politician in favor of reviving Iran’s nuclear deal and improving relations with the West, was elected president of the Islamic Republic in a runoff vote, according to an announcement on state television.

He beat hard liner Saeed Jalili, a longstanding critic of the nuclear accord who’s hostile to the US, by almost 3 million votes, results showed Saturday.

Turnout in the runoff was slightly higher than the poorly attended first round last week that pitted Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old heart surgeon and former health minister, against Islamist ideologue Jalili. 

The election comes at a time of unprecedented opposition to Iran’s ruling clerical establishment and as turmoil and conflict dominate the Middle East. Among Pezeshkian’s most pressing tasks are improving Iran’s heavily sanctioned economy and addressing public opposition to the country’s strict social laws that triggered an uprising against the Islamic Republic in 2022. 

He also faces the prospect of Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House after US elections in November. Trump’s foreign policy during his initial 2017-2021 term was defined by a hostile “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran that destabilized the Persian Gulf, rattled oil markets and almost triggered a direct war with the Islamic Republic. 

It was Trump who walked away from the nuclear deal agreed to by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

The snap election was called after conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May. Jalili was a strong backer of Raisi and Pezeshkian’s presidency is likely to mark a sharp departure from his predecessor’s very hawkish stance to the US.