STORY: Iran's presidential election has gone to a run-off, where a moderate lawmaker will stand against a protege of the supreme leader.
It came down to a tight race between a low-profile lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in a field of four candidates, and former Revolutionary Guards member Saeed Jalili.
The Islamic Republic's interior ministry said on Saturday (June 29) that no candidate had secured enough votes and a second round will be held on July 5.
Turnout in Friday's election hit a historic low of about 40%, based on an interior ministry count.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had called on voters to turn out, hoping to boost the legitimacy of the clerical establishment.
But there's widespread discontent over economic hardship and restrictions on political and social freedom.
And in the past few weeks, many Iranians have mocked the vote on X with the hashtag #ElectionCircus.
Pezeshkian, though faithful to Iran's theocratic rule, has publicly criticized authorities over the death of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman whose death in custody sparked mass unrest in Iran in 2022.
He also favors detente with the West, while Jalili is staunchly anti-Western.
Neither candidate is expected to usher in significant shifts for Iran, because Khamenei calls the shots on major issues like Iran's nuclear program and support for militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
But the next president would run the government and affect the tone of domestic and foreign policy, and could even influence the succession to Khamenei.
