TEHRAN: Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon and lawmaker who has promised to reach out to the West, haswon the presidential run-offby beating rival Saeed Jalili, the Ministry of Interior said.
"By gaining [the] majority of the votes cast on Friday, Pezeshkian has become Iran’s next president,” the ministry said on Saturday.
Pezeshkian secured 53.7 percent of the votes, or 16.3m, according to the official count. Jalili received 44.3 percent, or 13.5m.
In his first public comments after the results were declared, Pezeshkian expressed gratitude to those who voted "with love and to help” the country.
"We will extend the hand of friendship to everyone … we are all people of this country … we should use everyone for the progress of the country,” he said on state television.
Pezeshkian’s supporters took to the streets of Tehran and other cities before dawn on Saturday to celebrate as his lead grew over Jalili, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Videos on social media showed his backers dancing in the streets in many cities and towns across the country and motorists honking car horns to cheer his victory.
Participation in the election was 49.8 percent in a tight race between Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates who has pledged to open Iran to the world, and the former nuclear negotiator Jalili, who is a staunch advocate of deepening Iran’s ties to Russia and China.
The run-off on Friday followed a June 28 ballot with an historically low turnout, when more than 60 percent of Iranian voters abstained from the snap election for asuccessor to Ebrahim Raisi, following his death in a helicopter crash in May.
In the June election, Pezeshkian received about 42.5 percent of votes and Jalili some 38.7 percent.
Only 40 percent of 61 million eligible voters cast their ballot in June, the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Political analysts say Pezeshkian’s triumph might see the promotion of a pragmatic foreign policy, ease tensions over the now-stalled negotiations with major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal and improve prospects for social liberalisation as well as political pluralism in Iran.
However, many voters in Iran are sceptical about Pezeshkian’s ability to fulfil his campaign promises as the former health minister has publicly stated he has no intention of confronting Iran’s powerful elite of Muslim scholars and security hawks.
Both presidential candidates promised to revive the flagging economy, beset by mismanagement and sanctions reimposed since 2018 after the United States’ then-President Donald Trump unilaterally ditched the nuclear deal.