{"id":88885,"date":"2024-07-06T06:45:04","date_gmt":"2024-07-06T06:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/06\/irans-presidential-candidates-who-are-they-2\/"},"modified":"2024-07-06T06:45:04","modified_gmt":"2024-07-06T06:45:04","slug":"irans-presidential-candidates-who-are-they-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/06\/irans-presidential-candidates-who-are-they-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s Presidential Candidates: Who Are They?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"549\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/07\/05\/multimedia\/05iran-candidates-lgcm\/05iran-candidates-lgcm-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,549&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Iran\u2019s Presidential Candidates: Who Are They?\" title=\"Iran\u2019s Presidential Candidates: Who Are They?\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A reformist and an ultraconservative will square off in a runoff election Friday as neither candidate garnered the majority of votes required to win the presidency in a first round plagued by record low voter turnout and dissatisfaction with the political establishment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The July 5 election, being held a year early because of the death of former President Ebrahim Raisi <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/20\/world\/europe\/iran-crash-what-we-know.html\" title=\"\">in a May helicopter crash<\/a>, will decide whether the reform candidate, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, or the hard-liner Saeed Jalili, will assume the presidency of a country beleaguered by a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/04\/world\/middleeast\/iran-economy.html\" title=\"\">crippled economy<\/a>, internal protests and foreign policy challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the first round, 60 percent of eligible voters either did not show up at the polls or cast a blank vote, in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/30\/world\/middleeast\/iran-election-president-voters.html\" title=\"\">protest<\/a> of the ruling establishment, which they view as inefficient and incapable of solving Iran\u2019s domestic and international problems. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pezeshkian received over 10.4 million votes (42.4 percent) of the approximately 24 million cast, and Saeed Jalili received 9.47 million (38.6 percent).<\/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\">While Dr. Pezeshkian received the most votes in the first round, it\u2019s unclear who will emerge on top on Friday. The third-place candidate, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, who received 13.8 percent of first-round votes, endorsed Mr. Jalili, but earlier polling showed that many of Mr. Ghalibaf\u2019s supporters would not support Mr. Jalili.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Here is what to know about Dr. Pezeshkian and Mr. Jalili:<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-1b4a84f1\">Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian<\/h2>\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\">Dr. Pezeshkian is a cardiac surgeon and veteran of the Iran-Iraq war who served in Parliament and as Iran\u2019s health minister. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Reformist candidates were largely disqualified from the 2021 presidential election and from the parliamentary election held in March. Experts say Dr. Pezeshkian was likely allowed to run by the Guardian Council, the governing body that decides which candidates can compete, to increase voter turnout after many Iranians boycotted March\u2019s parliamentary elections. The government sees high voter turnout as crucial to the election\u2019s perceived legitimacy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Pezeshkian, an Azeri, one of Iran\u2019s ethnic minorities, was endorsed by former President Mohammad Khatami. The candidate has expressed openness to nuclear negotiations with the West, framing the debate as an economic issue. U.S.-led sanctions over Iran\u2019s ballistic and nuclear missile program are currently <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/07\/04\/world\/middleeast\/iran-economy.html\" title=\"\">crippling the country\u2019s economy<\/a>.<\/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\">Dr. Pezeshkian has a history of openly criticizing the government and decried the violent enforcement of mandatory hijab laws after the protests over the 2022 death of an Iranian Kurdish woman, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/16\/world\/middleeast\/iran-death-woman-protests.html\" title=\"\">Mahsa Amini<\/a>, engulfed the country.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-6f04caf4\">Saeed Jalili<\/h2>\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 is an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator nicknamed \u201cthe living martyr\u201d after he lost a leg in the Iran-Iraq war. He represents the country\u2019s most hard-line ideological views when it comes to domestic and foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Jalili, who is close to Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he believes that Iran does not need to negotiate with the United States for economic success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His position on the issue presents a \u201ctotally unrealistic\u201d assessment of Iran\u2019s economic capabilities to the public, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iran expert and Dean of the College of Arts, Sciences and Education at Missouri University of Science and Technology.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cHe\u2019s dead opposed not only to any nuclear deal, but to any sort of opening in the West,\u201d Mr. Boroujerdi said.<\/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\/07\/05\/world\/middleeast\/iran-president-election-candidates-who.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A reformist and an ultraconservative will square off in a runoff election Friday as neither candidate garnered the majority of votes required to win the presidency in a first round plagued by record low voter turnout and dissatisfaction with the political establishment. The July 5 election, being held a year early because of the death [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88886,"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\/07\/05\/multimedia\/05iran-candidates-lgcm\/05iran-candidates-lgcm-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3259,21116,212],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88885"}],"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=88885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88887,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88885\/revisions\/88887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}