The United States announced today that it does not expect a “fundamental change” in Iran regardless of the winner of the presidential election, the first round of which was neither “fair nor free”.

Iran’s presidential election will be decided on July 5 between the candidates – reformist Massoud Pezhezkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili – who prevailed in the first round, where turnout was the lowest since the Islamic Republic’s inception in 1979.

“We believe that these elections in Iran are neither fair nor free,” US State Department Deputy Spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.

“We do not expect these elections, whatever the outcome, to lead to fundamental change in Iran’s administration or to make the Iranian regime respect human rights or provide more dignity to its citizens,” he added.

The spokesman also disputed the figures released by the Iranian government.

“Even the Iranian government’s official figures on voter turnout, like most other figures linked to the Iranian regime, are unreliable,” he said.

Turnout in the first round held on Friday was 39.92 percent, the lowest in the Islamic Republic’s 45 years and a far cry from the 80 percent turnout in presidential elections at the end of the 20th century.