Masoud Pezeshkian wins Iran's 14th presidential elections

 July 6 (IANS) Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist and former Health Minister of Iran, on Saturday, won the 14th presidential election by beating his rival, Saeed Jalili, local media reported. Masoud Pezeshkian got 16,384,402 of the total 30,573,931 votes in the runoff, reports Iran International News. The voter turnout, however, stood at 49.8 per cent, relatively lower than the first phase of the elections, as over 50 per cent of the eligible voters boycotted the elections. Voting for the Iran presidential runoff commenced on Friday morning, with two top contenders, Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili, a principlist and the former chief negotiator in the nuclear talks between Tehran and world powers, in the run. Iran went to polls on June 28, and the next day, Spokesman of Iran's Election Headquarters Mohsen Eslami announced the results for the first phase, in which Pezeshkian garnered 42.6 per cent of the total votes, while Jalili got 38.8 per cent. Despite leading the race, none of the candidates were able to cross the 50 per cent mark required to win the presidential race. Iran's 14th presidential election, which had initially been set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash on May 19.