Iranians make final choice for president between two contrasting figures

Iranians are heading to the polls on Friday to make their final choice between contrasting candidates for who they want as their next president.

The regime will be hoping to see a higher turnout in the run-off vote, after the lowest ever in the first-round vote.

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili led the pack in the first round last week, in an election cycle brought forward by the death of former president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash in May.

The Islamic republic's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say in all state matters, cast his ballot when the polls opened at 8am local time, state TV showed.

“We are starting the second round of the 14th presidential election to choose the future president from among the two candidates across 58,638 polling stations in the country and all stations abroad,” Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said, reported state TV.

Only 40 per cent of Iran's 61 million eligible voters cast their ballots in the first round, representing the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the 1979 revolution that toppled the pro-western monarchy and ushered in theocratic rule.

The two candidates held their final campaign rallies late on Wednesday so as to respect the election silence on Thursday.

The stark contrast between both candidates reflects the divide between hardliners and moderates in Iranian society.

At his rally, Mr Jalili promised “strength and progress” if elected, as posters of the late ultraconservative Mr Raisi adorned the walls, bearing the slogan: “A world of opportunities, Iran leaps forward.”

At an open-air stadium elsewhere in the capital, Mr Pezeshkian made the case for “unity and cohesion”, his supporters' chants invoking another former president – the reformist Mohammad Khatami who has endorsed their candidate.

“Long live Khatami, long live Pezeshkian!” called the spirited crowd, waving green flags adorned with the reformist candidate's “For Iran” slogan.

During one of their final televised debates this week, both candidates also clashed on their world views and foreign policy agendas.

Mr Pezeshkian, Iran's sole reformist candidate during this snap election cycle, said he would focus his foreign policy agenda on building more ties with other countries instead of continuing the isolation, and sometimes hostility, of previous governments.

Mr Jalili, known for his uncompromising anti-West stance, has staunchly opposed moves to restore a landmark 2015 deal with world powers which imposed curbs on Iran's nuclear activity in return for sanctions relief. He is also the country’s former top nuclear negotiator.

He has argued that the deal, which collapsed in 2018 when the US withdrew from it, had violated all of Iran's “red lines” by allowing inspections of nuclear sites.

Mr Pezeshkian has called for “constructive relations” with Western governments to end Iran's isolationist stance over the past several years.

“We can manage our country with unity and cohesion,” Mr Pezeshkian told his supporters at his final rally. “I will resolve internal disputes to the best of my ability,” he said.

Mr Pezeshkian has also pledged to fully end police patrols enforcing the mandatory headscarf rule for women and called to ease long-standing internet restrictions, in a key policy deviating from the hardliners in a bid to win female and young voters.

The hijab issue has become particularly contentious following mass protests following the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, who was detained for wearing her headscarf “improperly”.

Friday’s vote is also expected to test the Iranian regime’s bid to calm domestic grievances among its people after years of protests, including a wave in 2019 sparked by a government decision to increase the price of fuel.

Mr Khamenei called on Wednesday for voters to participate in Friday's presidential ballot, saying that historically low first-round turnout was not an act “against the system”.

Mr Khamenei, in a video published by state TV, said it was “completely wrong to think that those who did not vote in the first round are against the system”.

But “participation was not as expected,” added Mr Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran.

– Agencies contributed to this report.