Reformist Masoud Pezeshkian has been elected as Iran’s new president, defeating his hardline conservative competitor Saeed Jalili, succeeding the Late Ebrahim Raisi.
Dr. Pezeshkian won with 53.3% of the more than 30 million votes counted. Jalili polled at 44.3%.
The run-off election was held because no candidate received a majority in the first round on June 28.
Voter turnout was historically low at 40%. The election was called following the death of Iran’s previous president, Ebrahim Raisi, and seven others in a helicopter crash in May.
Videos posted on social media showed primarily young people dancing and waving his campaign’s distinctive green flag as passing automobiles blew their joy.
Dr. Pezeshkian, a 71-year-old cardiac surgeon and member of Iran’s parliament, is critical of the country’s famed morality police and made a sensation by vowing “unity and cohesion” and an end to Iran’s “isolation” from the rest of the world.
He has also called for “constructive negotiations” with Western nations regarding renewing the faltering 2015 nuclear deal, in which Iran promised to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for easing Western sanctions.
Pezeshkian faces a minefield in his efforts to effect change, and while he has stated that he is loyal to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he has also stated that if he believes he is being obstructed, he will quit and call on the populace to disengage from the political process.
The president’s precise powers in foreign policy are disputed, but Pezeshkian argued in successive, often acrimonious TV debates that he could not effect change, including a 40% drop in inflation, unless he could secure the lifting of some sanctions, which would necessitate a less confrontational approach to international affairs.