Iran to hold runoff election between reformist Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-liner Saeed Jalili

Iran will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, an official said Saturday, after an initial vote saw the top candidates fail to secure an outright win. 

Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesman, announced the result in a news conference carried by Iranian state television. He said of 24.5 million votes cast, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million while Jalili received 9.4 million. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf got 3.3 million. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had more than 206,000 votes.

Voter turnout was about 40%, the lowest level in the country’s history, according to data from Eslami.