{"id":83886,"date":"2024-06-29T09:18:04","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T09:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/29\/reformist-reaches-runoff-in-irans-presidential-election\/"},"modified":"2024-06-29T09:18:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T09:18:04","slug":"reformist-reaches-runoff-in-irans-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/29\/reformist-reaches-runoff-in-irans-presidential-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Reformist Reaches Runoff in Iran\u2019s Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/29\/world\/29iran-election-HFO-retop\/29iran-election-HFO-retop-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Reformist Reaches Runoff in Iran\u2019s Presidential Election\" title=\"Reformist Reaches Runoff in Iran\u2019s Presidential Election\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A reformist candidate critical of an Iranian law that requires women to wear head scarves will compete next week against a hard-line conservative in a runoff election for the country\u2019s presidency, state media said on Saturday, following a special vote after the previous leader was killed last month in a helicopter crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A second round of voting, which will pit the reformist, Masoud Pezeshkian, against Saeed Jalili, an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator, will take place on July 5. The runoff was in part the result of low voter turnout and a crowded field of four candidates, three of whom competed for the conservative vote. Iranian law requires a winner to receive more than 50 percent of all votes cast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Participation in another round of voting will strain the energies of an already apathetic electorate, unsatisfied by their leaders at a time of international and domestic turmoil. Iran\u2019s economy is cratering under punishing Western sanctions, its citizens\u2019 freedoms are increasingly curtailed and its foreign policy is largely shaped by hard-line leaders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The campaign, which initially included six candidates \u2014 five conservatives and one reformist \u2014 was notable for how candidly those issues were discussed and a public willingness to attack the status quo. In speeches, televised debates and round-table discussions, the candidates criticized government policies and ridiculed rosy official assessments of Iran\u2019s economic prospects as harmful delusions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Public dissatisfaction in any new president\u2019s ability to bring change was reflected in low turnout for the election: According to Iran\u2019s state news agency, only 40 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irna.ir\/news\/85523617\/%D8%A7%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D9%86-%D8%A2%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AC-%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%B1%DB%8C%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA-%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%87%D9%88%D8%B1%DB%8C\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">official results announced<\/a> on Saturday, Dr. Pezeshkian led with 10.4 million votes (42.4 percent), followed by Mr. Jalili at 9.4 million (38.6 percent). A third conservative candidate, Gen. Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, the current speaker of Parliament and former mayor of Tehran, was a distant third at 3.3 million (13.8 percent).<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The low totals will be a blow to the country\u2019s governing clerics, who made voter participation a marker of the vote\u2019s perceived legitimacy and had hoped to achieve 50 percent turnout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Besides domestic pressures, Iran\u2019s leaders are also facing an especially volatile time in the region: Israel\u2019s war in Gaza against Hamas, an Iranian-backed militant group, and an escalation in skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah pit two of Iran\u2019s proxy forces against Israel, its sworn enemy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Despite the critical rhetoric of the campaign, the candidates were all members of the Iranian political establishment, approved to run by a committee of Islamic clerics and jurists. All but one, Dr. Pezeshkian, were considered conservatives close to the country\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Jalili, a former nuclear negotiator, is likely the candidate closest to Mr. Khamenei. He leads the ultra-right-wing Paydari party and represents the country\u2019s most hard-line ideological views when it comes to domestic and foreign policy. Mr. Jalili has said he believes Iran does not need to negotiate with the United States for economic success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pezeshkian is a cardiac surgeon and veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who served in Parliament and as Iran\u2019s health minister. After his wife and child died in a car accident, he raised his other children as a single father and has never remarried. This and his identity as an Azeri, one of Iran\u2019s ethnic minorities, has endeared him to many voters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pezeshkian was endorsed by former President Mohammad Khatami, and he has expressed openness to nuclear negotiations with the West, framing the debate as an economic issue. But with the conservative vote no longer split among multiple candidates, his path to the presidency could become more complicated in the head-to-head runoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By stacking the deck to increase the chances of a conservative\u2019s victory, Mr. Khamenei signaled his desire for a second in command whose outlook mirrored his own and who would continue the agenda of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/20\/world\/middleeast\/ebrahim-raisi-iran-dead.html\" title=\"\">Ebrahim Raisi<\/a>, the hard-line president killed last month in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The low voter turnout reflected widespread apathy among Iranians, who also voted in record low numbers in parliamentary elections this year. That frustration has been intensified by the government\u2019s violent crackdowns on protesters demanding change and its inadequate response to the toll that decades of sanctions have wreaked on the country\u2019s economy, shrinking Iranians\u2019 purchasing power.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The most recent anti-government demonstrations \u2014 and an ensuing crackdown \u2014 were prompted largely by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/16\/world\/middleeast\/iran-death-woman-protests.html\" title=\"\">the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini<\/a>, who died in police custody after being detained for incorrectly wearing her mandatory head scarf, or hijab.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a nod to the unpopularity of the hijab law, the candidates all sought to distance themselves from the methods the country\u2019s morality policy use to enforce it, which include violence, arrests and fines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Although the head scarf mandate became a campaign issue, it is unlikely that the law will be annulled, and it is doubtful that a new president can soften its enforcement. The protests, organized largely by women, provoked a bloody crackdown ordered by Mr. Khamenei, and any new president, analysts said, would be expected to enforce his policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That is largely because Iran is a theocracy with parallel systems of governance in which elected bodies are supervised by appointed councils made up of Islamic clerics and jurists. Key state policies on nuclear, military and foreign affairs are decided by the country\u2019s supreme leader, Mr. Khamenei.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The president\u2019s role is focused on domestic policy and economic matters, but it is still an influential position. Previous presidents have played active roles in conducting foreign policy, including a 2015 deal with the United States in which Iran agreed to shelve its nuclear program in exchange for the easing of sanctions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That deal was scuppered in 2018 by the Trump administration, and Iran has returned to enriching uranium. Beyond tensions over Tehran\u2019s nuclear program, the United States and Iran have in the past year come increasingly close to a direct confrontation as they compete for influence across the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Gaza, the war between Israel, a U.S. ally, and Hamas has drawn the United States, Iran and Iran\u2019s foreign proxies into closer conflict. Iran sees its use of those groups as a way of extending its power, but many citizens, particularly in the cities, see little value in their leaders\u2019 strategy and believe the economy will recover only through sustained diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Leily Nikounazar<!-- --> contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/29\/world\/middleeast\/iran-election-masoud-pezeshkian-saeed-jalili.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reformist candidate critical of an Iranian law that requires women to wear head scarves will compete next week against a hard-line conservative in a runoff election for the country\u2019s presidency, state media said on Saturday, following a special vote after the previous leader was killed last month in a helicopter crash. A second round [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/29\/world\/29iran-election-HFO-retop\/29iran-election-HFO-retop-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[50,21116,212,2621,73895,3603],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83886"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83888,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83886\/revisions\/83888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}