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Pezeshkian said he won the runoff with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million.
Masoud Pezeshkian, an Iranian heart surgeon and member of parliament who promised to visit the West, has won the country’s presidential election, defeating rival Saeed Jalili, the Interior Ministry said.
“By receiving [the] “Pezeshkian became Iran’s next president with a majority of votes cast on Friday,” the ministry said.
The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported that Pezeshkian won with 16.3 million votes to Jalili’s 13.5 million after Friday’s election, according to official tallies.
Beseshkian’s supporters took to the streets of Tehran and other cities early Saturday to celebrate his increased lead over Jalili, the AP reported.
Videos on social media showed Pezeshkian supporters dancing in the streets of several towns and cities across the country and motorists honking car horns to cheer his victory.
Turnout was around 50 percent in a tight race between moderate Pezeshkian and former nuclear negotiator Jalili, a staunch supporter of deepening Iran, in an original field of four candidates who pledged to open Iran to the world. Relations with Russia and China.
A second round of voting on Friday followed a June 28 vote, when more than 60 percent of Iranian voters abstained from a snap election to replace Ibrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash, with a historically low turnout.
Political analysts see Pezeshkian’s victory as improving a pragmatic foreign policy, easing tensions over now-stalled negotiations with major powers to renew the 2015 nuclear deal and improve prospects for social liberalization and political pluralism.
However, many voters in Iran are skeptical about Beseshkian’s ability to deliver on his campaign promises, as the former health minister has publicly said he has no intention of standing up to Iran’s powerful clerics and security hawks.
Since 2018, after U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear deal, both presidential candidates have pledged to revive a moribund economy plagued by mismanagement and sanctions.
