Presidential candidates Saeed Jalili, left, and Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran.
| Picture Credit score: AP

Over 20 years in the past, Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stood earlier than a crowd at Friday prayers to denounce the U.S. for its disenchanted voters.

“It’s disgraceful for a nation to have a 35% or 40% voter turnout, as occurs in a few of the nations that you simply see having presidential elections,” Mr. Khamenei stated in 2001. “It’s apparent that their individuals don’t belief their political system, that they don’t care about it and that they don’t have any hope.”

Iran now faces what he described. Iran will maintain a run-off presidential election on Friday, solely its second because the 1979 Islamic Revolution, after solely 39.9% of its voting public forged a poll the earlier week. Of over 24.5 million votes, greater than 1 million ballots have been later rejected — usually an indication of individuals feeling obligated to move to the polls however desirous to reject all of the candidates.

In the meantime, public rage simmers after years of Iran’s financial system cratering to new lows, together with bloody crackdowns on dissent, together with over the mass protests sparked by the 2022 dying of Mahsa Amini after her detention by the nation’s morality police allegedly over not sporting her headband in keeping with the foundations. Tensions with the West stay excessive as Iran enriches uranium nearer than ever to weapons-grade ranges.

Now, hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili faces the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, a coronary heart surgeon who seemingly wants a widespread turnout to win the presidency. Mr. Pezeshkian’s supporters warn of darkish days forward below Mr. Jalili. In the meantime, many individuals are unconvinced that their vote even issues.

Iranian election regulation requires a candidate to recover from 50% of the vote to keep away from a run-off. In outcomes launched on Saturday, Mr. Pezeshkian acquired 10.4 million votes whereas Mr. Jalili acquired 9.4 million. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf got here in third with 3.3 million, whereas Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000.