Iran’s presidential election is destined for a runoff, after the results on Saturday showed no candidate had garnered over 50% of the votes.;
Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, the two candidates with the highest number of votes, will face off in a showdown;next Friday, July 5.
The spokesman for the Elections Headquarters announced the final results of yesterday’s presidential election, saying a total of 24,535,185 votes have been cast in the polls.
The voter turnout has accordingly stood at 39.92, as over 61,452,000 people were eligible to vote.
Pezeshkian has won 10,415,991 votes, equivalent to 42.45% of the ballots.
The runner-up, Jalili, has secured 38.61% of the votes with 9,473,298 ballots.
The two other candidates, namely Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, have garnered 13.78% and 0.84% of the votes, respectively.
The polls were held at around 59,000 polling stations across the country.
The election took place a year ahead of schedule, as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi passed away in May.
A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on May 19, killing the president, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and six others.