Good news for democracy in Iran – words which in recent times, particularly in western news reports, are rarely seen in the same sentence. But the election of Masoud Pezeshkian as president of Iran must be seen as a positive development.
Pezeshkian is a known democrat with a track record as the health minister in the government of the reformist Mohammad Khatami between 2001 and 2005. More recently he strongly criticised the brutal crackdown on mass popular demonstrations in 2018 and 2022.
Pezeshkian defeated his conservative opponent, Saeed Jalili, the former lead nuclear negotiator, by a margin of 2.7 million votes in the run-off vote held on July 7. Turnout was 49.7% of the 61 million eligible voters, ten points more than the first ballot where fewer than 40% voted.
