Four takeaways from Iran’s presidential election

Iranian presidential candidate Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, a reformist, waves at supporters during a campaign event at a stadium in Tehran on June, 23, 2024. A reformist candidate critical of requiring women to wear head scarves and a hard-line conservative will compete in a runoff election for the presidency, according to the country's government controlled media. [Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times]

Iranian voters signaled their disenchantment with Iran's system of clerical rule in the country's presidential election Friday, going to the polls in record-low numbers to help two establishment candidates limp to a runoff.

The runoff Friday will offer voters a final choice between a reformist former health minister, Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian, and an ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, neither of whom managed to get more than the 50% of votes needed to win the presidency. That postpones for another week the question of who will steer Iran through challenges including a sickly economy, the gulf between rulers and ruled and a nearby war that keeps threatening to drag Iran further in.

But despite belonging to two different camps, neither man is expected to bring major change to Iran, given that they must govern with the ultimate approval of Iran's...

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