We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone,
TEHRAN: Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian has emerged victorious in the Iranian presidential run-off polls, the interior ministry said on Saturday.
The polls, held on Friday, saw Pezeshkian going up against Saeed Jalili in a closely contested race to become the country’s next president.
By gaining majority of the votes cast on Friday, Pezeshkian has become Iran’s next president,” it said.
The participation was around 50% in a tight race between Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, and hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, a staunch advocate of deepening ties with Russia and China.
With the turnout reported to be around 50% on Friday, around 30 million Iranians cast their vote of which Pezeshkian received more than 16 million, whereas Jalili secured around 13 million votes, whereas around 600,000 ballots were declared “spoiled”.
Videos on social media showed supporters of Pezeshkian dancing in streets in many cities and towns across the country and motorists honking car horns to cheer his victory.
People in the northwestern city of Urmia, Pezeshkian’s hometown, were handing sweets out on the streets, witnesses said.
While the election is expected to have little impact on the Islamic Republic’s policies, the president will be closely involved in selecting the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 85-year-old Supreme Leader, who calls all the shots on top matters of state.
Voter turnout has plunged over the past four years, which critics say underlines that support for clerical rule has eroded at a time of growing public discontent over economic hardship and curbs on political and social freedoms.
Iran election shows declining voter support amid calls for change
Only 48% of voters participated in the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, and turnout was 41% in a parliamentary election in March.
The election coincides with escalating Middle East tensions due to the war between Israel and Iranian allies Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well as increased Western pressure on Iran over its fast-advancing uranium enrichment programme.
The next president is not expected to produce any major policy shift on the nuclear programme or change in support for militia groups across the Middle East, but he runs the government day-to-day and can influence the tone of Iran’s foreign and domestic policy.
We should use everyone for progress of country,” says president-elect,
n his first remarks since being declared winner of a run-off vote, Pezeshkian said he would “extend the hand of friendship to everyone”
“We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone; we are all people of this country, we should use everyone for the progress of the country,” the president-elect said.
A triumph by Pezeshkian might promote a pragmatic foreign policy, ease tensions over now-stalled negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal, and improve prospects for social liberalisation and political pluralism, analysts said.
However, many voters are skeptical about Pezeshkian’s ability to fulfil his campaign promises as the former health minister has publicly stated that he had no intention of confronting Iran’s power elite of clerics and security hawks.
The newly elected president is faithful to Iran’s theocratic rule with no intention of confronting the powerful security hawks and clerical rulers. In TV debates and interviews, he promised not to contest Khamenei’s policies.
Pezeshkian has vowed to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement, state corruption and the United States sanctions.
Here is new President CV,
* Birth: 29 September 1954 (age 69)
* Education: Tabriz University of Medical Sciences
* Profession: Cardiac and Heart Surgeon
* Full Professor at the Medical University of Tabriz
* Minister of Health and Medical Education between 2001 and 2005
* First Deputy Speaker of the Parliament from 2016 to 2020.
* Tabriz representative in the Parliament of Iran (2008)
