Iran's 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of former President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19.
Tehran: Iran’s Constitutional Council, which oversees the process and results of elections, has validated the first round’s results of the country’s 14th presidential polls, paving the way for the candidates to begin electoral campaigns for the run-off. The announcement was made by Hadi Tahan Nazif, spokesman for the council, in a televised interview with the state-run IRIB TV.
He said the institution confirms the results following investigation and reviews, Xinhua reported. None of the four candidates vying in the first round had made any objection to the election results during the legal time frame for voicing complaints, he said.
In the first round of voting for the snap presidential race that started early on June 30 and ended at midnight after being extended three times, no candidate obtained more than 50 per cent of the total votes needed to call a winner.
The country was thus sent into a run-off scheduled for July 5 between top contenders — reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s former Health Minister, who received more than 42 per cent of the votes in the first round, and Saeed Jalili, the former chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, who garnered more than 38 per cent of the total.
Iranian law requires that a winner gets more than 50 per cent of all votes cast. If not, the race’s top two candidates will advance to a runoff a week later. The voting came as wider tensions have gripped the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
