Iran to hold runoff election after low presidential voting

The government of Iran scheduled another round of voting in the country’s presidential election later this week after none of the four candidates on last week’s ballot won a majority vote. Reformist parliamentarian Masoud Pezeshkian won the most support with 42 percent of the vote, followed by former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili with just over 38 percent support, Iranian Interior Ministry spokesman Mohsen Eslami said Saturday. Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former government minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi did not qualify for the next round of votes.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on all citizens to participate in Friday’s election after former President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash. However, about 40 percent of Iranian voters participated in the election, according to election officials. Last week’s vote marked the country’s lowest voter turnout for a presidential election since the 1979 Islamic takeover, according to London-based Iran International TV.

Why was there such a low turnout? Iran International TV posted a video on Friday showing poll workers taking naps from such low voter turnout. Some Iran nationals overseas protested outside Iranian embassies where citizens overseas cast ballots. Footage showed a small crowd of demonstrators chanting outside the country’s consulate and embassy in London. One protester there refused to participate in the election, calling the process a government selection rather than a fair election. This Islamic regime is not the Iranian government, another protester said. Iranian embassies and consulates in Berlin and Hamburg had similar protests.

Both qualifying candidates have ramped up their campaign trail rhetoric ahead of the second vote scheduled for Friday. Citizens who voted were a shield against a minority in Iran that thinks it owns the country, candidate Pezeshkian wrote on social media. He added in a later post that his presidency will stand at people’s feet and end ugly lies. Jalili posted a video of what appeared to be thousands of supporters gathered Sunday outside Amir Chakhmaq Complex in Yazd City, a provincial capital in Central Iran.

Dig deeper: Read Jenny Lind Schmitt’s report in WORLD Magazine on the United States sanctioning Iran for financially backing Hamas.