One has vowed to confront Iran’s enemies, the other has vowed to make peace with the world. One intends to tighten social restrictions, the other promises to ease stifling rules for young people and women. One defines himself as an Islamic ideologue, the other as a pragmatic reformist.
Iranians voted Friday for the country’s next president in a race that has turned into a fierce contest and where, for the first time in more than a decade, the outcome is difficult to predict.
Friday’s runoff, between ultraconservative Saeed Jalili and reformist Dr Masoud Pezeshkian, comes after last week’s general election failed to produce a candidate who won the required 50 percent of the vote.
The outcome may depend on how many Iranians who did not vote in the general election decide to participate in the runoff. Turnout hit a record low of 40 percent last week, with the majority of Iranians boycotting the poll out of anger at the government or disaffection and apathy over the failure of previous governments to deliver meaningful change.
Voting hours have been extended until midnight local time, or 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The government and election campaigns have worked hard to encourage Iranians to turn out to vote. According to Iranian media, about 27 million Iranians had voted by 9 p.m., or about 45 percent of eligible voters, a figure that is expected to reach 48 percent by the time polls close.
If confirmed, this percentage would be eight percentage points higher than in the first round, which remains a disappointment for the government. Analysts had expected that any increase in turnout would primarily benefit Dr. Pezeshkian, since abstainers tend to be young people and liberals disillusioned with the system, who are seen as more likely to support the reformist. But Pezeshkian’s campaign had hoped for a bigger increase in turnout.
The authorities have made great efforts to encourage voting. State television has broadcast long lines of hikers, ballots in hand, Voters traveled to the top of Mount Damavand, Iran’s highest peak at 5,500 metres, to cast their ballots in a ballot box that had been flown in. Couples showed up in wedding attire at polling stations and the army dropped off ballot boxes in remote areas where nomadic tribes live, state media showed.
Kourosh Soleimani, a resident of Isfahan, said on the social media app ClubHouse that he had seen buses transporting Mr Jalili’s supporters from villages to polling stations, where they received free lunches.
Representatives from both campaigns said in telephone interviews that the race remains tight, with each campaign saying its candidate leads by about a million votes. Results are expected Saturday morning.
Voters had to choose between two radically different visions for governing the country, which faces a multitude of challenges at home and abroad. The two candidates represent opposite ends of the political spectrum: Mr. Jalili is a hardliner known for his dogmatic views, while Dr. Pezeshkian has gained popularity with voters by calling for moderation in domestic and foreign policy.
Mr Jalili rejects compromise with the West, saying Iran should build its economy by expanding ties with other countries, mainly Russia and China. A former nuclear negotiator, he opposed the 2015 nuclear deal as too concessionary and supports the law on compulsory hijabs for women and restrictions on the internet and social media.
Mr Pezeshkian has promised to revive the economy by negotiating with the West to lift sanctions. He has promised to abolish the morality police, which enforces the hijab law, lift internet restrictions and bring in technocrats to run the country.
“This election is about competing currents, not candidates as such,” said Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East program. “These currents reflect an attempt to preserve revolutionary values, Islamic ideology and the notion of resistance within the Iranian state, as opposed to an alternative that is not really reform but rather a more moderate and open social and political climate.”
In Iran’s theocratic system of governance, the president lacks the power to reverse major policies that could lead to the kind of change many Iranians would like to see. That power lies in the person of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Two previous presidents, elected by overwhelming majorities, promised change but failed to deliver, leading to widespread disillusionment.
Still, the president is not completely powerless, analysts say. He is responsible for setting the domestic policy agenda, choosing cabinet members and even exerting some influence on foreign policy.
Mr. Khamenei voted early Friday morning at the religious center attached to his residence, state television showed. He cast his ballot in a box on a separate table in a large hallway and waved to his interlocutor.
“At this stage, people should naturally be more determined and finish the job,” Khamenei said, without giving any indication of which candidate he supported.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. Friday and are scheduled to close at 10 p.m., although an extension is likely. Many Iranians vote in the evening because of the summer heat.
Mr Khamenei said on Wednesday he was disappointed by the low turnout in the first round and acknowledged some disillusionment with the Islamic regime. But he rejected attempts to equate the low turnout with a rejection of the system and called on people to go out and vote.
“We have said this many times,” he said. “The participation of the people is a support for the system of the Islamic Republic, it is a source of honor, it is a source of pride.”
Turnout in the second round is expected to be slightly higher due to the high degree of polarization of votes, but also because many people fear the arrival of an extremely hardline government. The Interior Ministry said representatives of both candidates would be present at polling stations during voting and the counting of ballots.
Mr. Jalili is part of a radical but influential political party known as Paydari, whose supporters view him more as an ideological leader than a politician. Dr. Pezeshkian, a cardiologist and former health minister and member of parliament, was until recently little known outside political and medical circles.
Their advisers and campaign staff reflect the stark differences in their policies and have given voters a glimpse of what each administration might look like.
Mr. Jalili’s team includes hard-line conservatives who insist his presidency will be a continuation of the “resistance policy” of former President Ebrahim Raisi, whose death in a helicopter crash in May prompted emergency elections. Military commanders and religious leaders have thrown their support behind him, praising his zeal in religious and revolutionary matters.
Dr Pezeshkian has assembled a team of technocrats, diplomats and seasoned ministers, including former foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who are touring the country in support of him, mainly by warning of a doomsday if Mr Jalili is elected.
The reformists are counting on significant defections from the conservative camp, where Mr. Jalili has long been a divisive figure. Many conservatives view him as too extreme, analysts say, and fear that his presidency could further widen the divide between the government and public opinion and put Iran on a trajectory toward conflict with the West.
Polls conducted by government agencies suggest that a significant number of voters who support the more moderate conservative candidate, Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf, the speaker of parliament, would turn to Dr. Pezeshkian in an effort to block Mr. Jalili’s chances of becoming president.
Many Iranians are still determined to boycott the vote. Mahsa, a 34-year-old accountant from Isfahan, said she would not vote and did not believe the logic that she would have to choose between “worse and worse.”
But others said in interviews and on social media that they had changed their minds, mainly because they were terrified by Mr. Jalili’s rise.
Babak, a 37-year-old businessman from Tehran who asked that his last name be withheld for fear of reprisals, said he and his family members would end their boycott and vote for Dr. Pezeshkian. “We hesitated over what to do, and in the end we decided that we had to try to stop Jalili, otherwise we would suffer more,” he said.
Keyvan Samimi, a prominent political activist who did not vote in the first round, said: in a video message posted on social media Iran’s president announced in Tehran that he had decided to support Dr. Pezeshkian. “We are voting in protest to save Iran,” he said. The frenzy against Mr. Jalili has intensified in the run-up to the vote. Leading politicians have compared him to the Taliban and accused him of running a “shadow government.”
Mr. Jalili’s supporters hit back, accusing the reformists of insulting them and sowing fear. They counterattacked by calling Dr. Pezeshkian a puppet of the moderate former president, Hassan Rouhani. They said the doctor had no real plan and was overreaching on issues that were outside his authority as president, particularly his promise to abolish the widely hated morality police and normalize relations with the United States.
Reza Salehi, 42, a conservative public relations worker who campaigned for Mr. Jalili, said in an interview from Tehran that “Mr. Jalili is absolutely not dogmatic.” He added that the candidate was better prepared to govern and that the so-called shadow government looked more like a think tank than the sinister plot that his rivals have denounced.
Leily Nikounazar report contributed from Belgium.
