Reuters
Massoud Pezeshkian gained the runoff election with 53.7% of the vote.
Wild-card candidate Massoud Pezeshkian defeated hard-line Saeed Jalili in Friday’s runoff election to turn out to be Iran’s first reformist president in practically twenty years.
The 69-year-old former coronary heart surgeon and well being minister campaigned on a pledge to melt Iran’s conservative views and enhance ties with the West. He criticized the nation’s infamous morality police and known as for renewed talks on the stalled 2015 nuclear deal.
But analysts stay skeptical of his means to impact significant change inside an institution dominated by excessive conservatives.
When Pezeshkian’s identify was accepted on the poll 4 weeks in the past after hardline President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash, even his staunchest supporters have been shocked that he made it by the Guardian Council.
The highly effective physique of clergy and jurists, which vets candidates for his or her spiritual and revolutionary credentials, has barred many distinguished reformers and moderates from operating in current elections, together with Pezeshkian himself within the final presidential election in 2021.
In his congratulatory speech, he praised Ayatollah Khamenei’s “steerage” and mentioned he wouldn’t have been in a position to succeed with out him.
With Iran going through financial difficulties, a shadow warfare with Israel that surfaced earlier this 12 months and persevering with discontent over a violent crackdown on women-led protests that erupted in 2022, the truth that Pezeshkian was allowed to run could possibly be an indication that the supreme chief needs to melt the federal government’s stance on sure points.
EPA
Many supporters count on Pezeshkian to prioritize ladies’s rights.
Massoud Pezeshkian was born in 1954 within the metropolis of Mahabad within the northwestern a part of West Azerbaijan Province.
He is of combined Azerbaijani and Kurdish descent and grew up talking each languages, which supplies him widespread help among the many minority teams that make up greater than a 3rd of Iran’s inhabitants of 89 million.
He studied medication earlier than the 1979 Islamic Revolution and was a junior physician organising medical support for wounded troopers in the course of the Iran-Iraq warfare within the Nineteen Eighties, earlier than specialising in cardiac surgical procedure after the warfare.
In 1994, Pezeshkian confronted private tragedy when his spouse and son have been killed in a automotive accident. He selected to not remarry and raised his daughter and two remaining sons on his personal. He advised the story throughout his election marketing campaign, promising supporters, “I shall be devoted to you, simply as I’ve been devoted to my household.”
He rose by the political ranks within the early 2000s and served as well being minister within the second time period of reformist President Mohamed Khatami from 2001 to 2005.
He has served as a member of parliament for the northwestern metropolis of Tabriz since 2008 and served as its deputy speaker from 2016 to 2020.
Pezeshkian gained consideration for his criticism of the federal government’s response to protesters after a crackdown on unrest following the disputed 2009 presidential election, drawing backlash from Iran’s hard-line politicians.
Balancing change and loyalty
Pezeshkian’s candidacy on this 12 months’s presidential election was backed by key reformist teams and was additionally supported by Khatami and former President Hassan Rouhani, a reasonable.
He narrowly beat Said Jalili within the first spherical of the election, which noticed turnout a document low of 40 % amid requires a boycott from opponents of the clerical regime.
Turnout elevated by about 10 proportion factors within the runoff election, with Pezeshkian successful 53.7 % of the vote.
In a put up on X after his victory, Pezeshkian advised Iranians that this marked the start of a “partnership.”
“Without your cooperation, empathy and belief, the tough highway forward is not going to be easy. I attain out to you and pledge, on my honor, that I can’t go away you alone on this highway. Please do not go away me alone,” he wrote.
Pezeshkian is taken into account a reformer however has usually pressured his loyalty to the supreme chief.
He described himself as a “reformist fundamentalist” and mentioned, “I’m a fundamentalist and it’s due to these ideas that we search reform.”
In the context of Iranian politics, “fundamentalist” refers to conservative supporters of the supreme chief who insist on upholding the ideological ideas that emerged from the early days of the 1979 revolution.
Observers imagine Pezechkian’s means to juggle reformist and fundamentalist insurance policies shall be key to his success.