CONSERVATIVES CONSOLIDATE
The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, had originally approved six contenders.
But a day ahead of the election, two of them – the ultraconservative mayor of Tehran Alireza Zakani and Raisi’s vice president Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi – dropped out.
After the final results were released, they both asked their supporters to vote for Jalili in the Jul 5 runoff.
Ghalibaf followed suit, asking “all revolutionary forces and supporters” to get behind Jalili’s bid for the presidency.
In the 2021 election that brought Raisi to power, the Guardian Council disqualified many reformists and moderates, prompting many voters to shun the election.
The turnout then was just under 49 per cent, which at the time was the lowest in any presidential election in Iran.
Friday’s vote took place amid heightened regional tensions over the Gaza war, a dispute with the West over Iran’s nuclear programme and domestic discontent over the state of Iran’s sanctions-hit economy.
Opposition groups, especially in the diaspora, meanwhile called for a boycott, questioning the credibility of elections.
Pezeshkian, 69, is a heart surgeon who has represented the northwestern city of Tabriz in parliament since 2008.
He served as health minister under Iran’s last reformist president Mohammad Khatami, who held office from 1997 to 2005 and has endorsed Pezeshkian’s bid in the current elections.
