Iran Chooses New President: Masoud Pezeshkian vs. Saeed Jalili

Tehran, Iran – Voting is underway in Iran to elect a new president in a runoff election. This election is to find a successor for Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash. The final candidates are Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist, and Saeed Jalili, a hardline conservative.

In the first round of voting, only 39.92% of people voted, the lowest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has urged everyone to vote, calling it the ‘deciding round.’

Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, has been a member of parliament since 2008 and was a deputy speaker from 2016 to 2020. He was also the health minister in the early 2000s. Pezeshkian wants to improve relations with the West and lift sanctions against Iran.

Saeed Jalili, 58, has run for president before and is known for his hardline conservative views. He has been involved in Iran’s nuclear negotiations and is supported by Ali Bagheri Kani, the acting foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator.

Both candidates promise to improve living conditions in Iran, which is facing an economic crisis. The election was moved up due to the death of Raisi and others in a helicopter crash on May 19.