The reformer Massoud Pezheskian was elected president of Iran, as announced a few minutes ago by the Ministry of Interior in Tehran.

Pezeskian defeated the ultra-conservative Said Jalili in the second round of the presidential election, securing 16,384,403 votes to his opponent’s 13,538,179.

The turnout in the second round of the presidential election was only 49.8%.

Of the 14 presidential elections that have been held since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, so far only one, in 2005, has been decided in the second round.

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A 69-year-old surgeon by profession, Massoud Pezhezkian is an MP for Tabriz, a large city in northwestern Iran, and has limited government experience, which culminated in a post as health minister from 2001 to 2005 in the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami.

Pezeskian did not hesitate to criticize the authorities during the protest movement sparked by the death of Makhsa Amini in September 2022 while in custody.

He also advocates a warming of Iran’s relations with Western countries, led by the United States, to lift sanctions that are hitting the economy hard.

“Long live hope,” was the headline of the reformist newspaper Sazandegi, which published a photo of Massoud Pezheskian after the first round of the election, while the government newspaper Iran called on voters to “vote for Iran’s prestige.”

By contrast, 58-year-old Saeed Jalili – who held key positions within the Islamic Republic and was trusted by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei – advocated a hardline policy towards the West and demonstrated this during the six years he conducted the Iran nuclear negotiations. program, from 2007 to 2013.