Iran holds runoff presidential election

Polls opened across Iran early Friday for the first presidential runoff vote in over 19 years as reformists look to regain power, Report informs Anadolu Agency.

Two candidates – Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist lawmaker and former health minister, and Saeed Jalili, a conservative former lead nuclear negotiator and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council – are vying for the presidency.

Pezeshkian and Jalili emerged as the frontrunners in the June 28 snap presidential election but fell short of securing the 50% plus one vote required for an outright win.

Polling stations across the country opened to voters Friday at 8 a.m. local time (GMT+3:30). Voting will continue until 6 p.m. local time.

The stipulated 10-hour voting process is likely to be extended by the Interior Ministry, which manages the election, to accommodate more voters.

In the June 28 snap presidential election, voting was extended thrice and ended at midnight, but voter turnout was still the lowest since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, at 40%.

Around 61 million people are eligible to vote in this year's presidential election, according to official data. In the 2021 election, 59.3 million people were eligible to vote.

A total of 58,640 polling stations will facilitate the voting process in the runoff election inside Iran, similar to the previous round, with more than 6,000 of them in the capital Tehran alone.

According to poll experts, the 60% of voters who didn't participate in the June 28 election could prove decisive in determining the final outcome if they come out to vote.