Iran to hold runoff election with reformist Pezeshkian and hard-liner Jalili after low-turnout vote

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Iran will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi after an initial vote saw the top candidates not secure an outright win in the lowest turnout poll ever held in the Islamic Republic by percentage. The election this coming Friday will pit little-known reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesman, announced the result in a news conference carried by Iranian state television on Saturday. 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 over 206,000 votes.