Iran: Pezeshkian wins runoff vote to become Iran’s 9th president

Masoud Pezeshkian (photo) won the runoff presidential elections held on Friday to become Iran’s 9th president, IRNA informs.

Out of a total of 30,530,157 votes counted, Pezeshkian, a heart surgeon, won 16,384,403 votes while Jalili stood behind his rival with 13,538,179 ballots. The turnout was reported to be 49.8%.

Pezeshkian, 69, had served as a lawmaker in the Iranian Parliament for five 4-year terms.

He was also the vice speaker of Iran’s 10th Parliament. The president-elect served as Iran’s minister of health for four years during the administration of then-President Mohammad Khatami.

The early election was held on June 28 across Iran with the participation of four candidates.

Masoud Pezeshkian and Saeed Jalili won more votes than other hopefuls; meanwhile, the runoff election was planned for a week later as none of the candidates managed to get the majority of votes to become the president of Iran.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iranian lawmaker and heart surgeon, has won the 14th presidential election, becoming the ninth president of the Islamic Republic, writes IRNA.

Pezeshkian was born on September 29, 1954 in the city of Mahabad in West Azarbaijan Province, northwest Iran.

After finishing high school and getting his first diploma, Pezeshkian served military service in the southeastern city of Zabol.

He then decided to get his second diploma in physical science, and after that, he was admitted to Tabriz University of Medical Science in medicine in 1976.

Pezeshkian continued his education, and specialized in general surgery at the same university. In 1993, he received a subspecialty in cardiac surgery from Iran University of Medical Sciences, and later became a specialist in heart surgery. He was also the head of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences for five years.

Pezeshkian served as health minister in former president Mohammad Khatami’s administration from 2001 to 2005.

He also served as a lawmaker in different Iranian parliaments. Pezeshkian first entered the legislative body, called Majlis, by being elected to the eighth parliament that started its term in 2008.

In the tenth parliament, he served as the vice chairman. And earlier this year during the latest parliamentary elections, he once again was elected to Majlis, representing Tabriz, the provincial capital of East Azerbaijan.

Pezeshkian ran for president twice in the past years.

In 2013, he dropped out of the race in favor of the late Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani before the start of the vetting process by Iran’s Constitutional Council.

The second time Pezeshkian ran for president was in 2021 when he was not approved by the council.

This year, Masoud Pezeshkian entered the presidential race on a platform of “justice” and “unity and integration” under the slogan “For Iran”.

He won the top executive post in a runoff with Saeed Jalili, which was held on Friday, a week after the first round that saw four candidates vying for the job.

Pezeshkian has said, if elected, he would form a committee that would oversee his administration’s activity.

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