The next president of Iran will be decided in a run-off election in a week's time. According to the Interior Ministry in Tehran, none of the four candidates won an absolute majority in the first round of the 14th presidential election on Friday. The two best-placed candidates, former health minister Masoud Pezeshkian and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, received a good 42 percent and just under 39 percent of the vote respectively, according to official figures. Pezeshkian is considered moderate to reform-oriented, while Jalili is categorised as strictly conservative.

The incumbent conservative parliamentary speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf follows in third place with around 14 percent of the vote, as the head of the election board reported on state television. The fourth candidate, cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, received less than one percent of the vote. As the votes are counted by hand, it is likely to take two days before the final result is available.

Around 61 million voters were called upon to elect a new head of government on Friday. According to the Ministry of the Interior, voter turnout in the first round was around 40 percent, a historic low. After the ultra-conservative Guardian Council had only authorised a few candidates, numerous organisations, including NGOs, parties and activists in Rojhilat (East Kurdistan) called for an election boycott. Political power in Iran has been vested in the country's spiritual leader since the 1979 revolution. The president is responsible for implementing the political guidelines laid down by the spiritual leader.