BYA woman prepares to casts her ballot during the presidential election at a polling station inside the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the country's foreign minister and several other officials.
The early results, reported by Iranian state television, did not initially put either man in a position to win Friday's election outright, potentially setting the stage for a runoff election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.It also did not offer any turnout figures for the race yet — a crucial component of whether Iran's electorate backs its Shiite theocracy after years of economic turmoil and mass protests.
Another candidate, hard-line parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, had some 1.89 million votes. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 111,900 votes.Voters faced a choice between the three hard-line candidates and the little-known reformist Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon. As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from running, while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.