Tehran [Iran], June 30: Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and conservative hardliner Saeed Jalili will go to a run-off in Iran's presidential election next week, after record low turnout in the first round.
Pezeshkian received 42.5% of the vote and Jalili followed at 38.7%.
As neither achieved an absolute majority, the run-off will take place on July 5, the country's electoral authority said.
There were two other candidates in the race: current parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf garnered nearly 14% of the vote while cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi got less than 1%.
Some 61 million voters in Iran were eligible to elect a successor to hardliner Ebrahim Raisi on Friday, after he died in a helicopter crash in May.
Out of a total of 80 candidates, the Guardian Council, a powerful Islamic supervisory body that vets the hopefuls, had only authorized six candidates for the election.
Two of six later withdrew, leaving three conservatives and the one more moderate candidate, Pezeshkian. Jalili is a loyal supporter of the leaders at the top of the Islamic Republic's system of power.
After the results were announced, Ghalibaf pledged his support to Jalili. In a statement published by state news agency IRNA, he asked his backers to help prevent Pezeshkian coming to power.
Source: Qatar Tribune