Iran's presidential election enters run-off

Tehran, June 29 (IANS) Iran's 14th presidential election on Saturday entered a run-off vote, with former Health Minister Masoud Pezeshkian and former chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili leading in the first round, but no one gets the minimum threshold of 50 per cent of votes, Iran's Election Headquarters Spokesperson Mohsen Eslami said.

The spokesperson said that the turnout of the voting stands at 40 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency.

Voting for Iran's 14th presidential election took place on Friday, after President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash last month.

The voting was held at close to 59,000 polling stations in more than 95 states, and over 61 million people are eligible to vote in the election, according to authorities.

Iran's 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following Raisi's unexpected death.

Initially, six candidates -- Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, the current Vice President; Alireza Zakani, the Mayor of Tehran; Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Parliamentary Speaker; Saeed Jalili, the former top negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior Minister and Justice Minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Health Minister -- were qualified to enter the race.

Later, Hashemi and Zakani, two principlist candidates, withdrew from the race in favour of Qalibaf and Jalili, who were also in the principlists' camp.