International Desk, Bangladesh Global: Iran's former health minister and senior member of parliament Masoud Pezheshkian has been elected as the country's ninth president. He won the majority of votes in the second phase of the 14th presidential election held on Friday.
President Pezeshkian, who was elected by popular vote, received 163 million 84 thousand 403 votes. On the other hand, the number of votes received by the former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is 1 crore 35 lakh 38 thousand 179.
Born in 1954, newly elected President Pezheshkian specialized in heart surgery. He served as Iran's Minister of Health from 2001 to 2005. He also served as a five-time elected Member of Parliament from the northern Tabriz region of Iran. He also has the experience of serving as the Deputy Speaker of the 10th National Parliament of Iran.
It may be noted that although the voting period for the second round of elections on Friday was till 6 pm, it was extended several times till 12 midnight.
Voter turnout at the polling stations during the day was relatively low due to the scorching summer heat in Iran. After evening, the queues of voters started to increase and as the night progressed, these queues got longer.
Earlier, the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, voted in the early hours of the day in the capital Tehran yesterday. "Alhamdulillah today is a good day," Iran's Supreme Leader said after voting. Today is a day for our beloved people to be active on an important political issue That is, the day to actively participate in the election. Inshallah our dear people will vote and choose the best candidate. At this stage, people will naturally finish the task with maximum effort. Inshallah we will have an elected president tomorrow.”
Four candidates competed in the election held on June 28. However, as no single person got more than 50 percent of the votes, the election became a run-off. 2 crore 45 lakh voters voted in the June 28 election. Among them, the reformist candidate Pezheshkian got 1.4 million votes. On the other hand, former chief nuclear negotiator and revolutionary principle follower Saeed Jalili got 9.4 million votes.
Bangladesh global/RT
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