Newly-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visits to the shrine of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran, Iran on July 06, 2024. Fatemeh Bahrami | Anadolu | Getty ImagesIran on Friday elected its first "reformist" president in 20 years, signaling many voters' rejection of hardline conservative policies amid low turnout of just 49%, according to official figures. Iran's sole reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative Saeed Jalili are set to go to runoffs after securing the highest number of votes in Iran's presidential election, the interior ministry said. "This is why many Iranians have lost hope in bringing about change through the ballot boxes and are boycotting elections." "The core structure of Iran's theocratic regime, where a Supreme Leader's authority eclipses that of any president, will remain steadfastly intact… In essence, Iran's theocracy is designed to resist meaningful change."

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Persons: Masoud Pezeshkian, Ruhollah Khomeini, Fatemeh, Masoud, Ibrahim Raisi, Sina, Toossi, Massoud Pezeshkian, Majid Saeedi, Mohammad Khatami, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Nader Itayim, Khamenei, Itayim, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Amirhossein Ghazizadeh, Hashemi Alireza Zakani, Saeed Jalili, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Iran's, ultraconservative Saeed Jalili, Atta Kenare, Ben Taleblu, Pezeshkhian, Mahsa Amini, Amini, Mahsa, Ozan Kose, Pezeshkian's Organizations: Anadolu, Getty, Center for International, CNBC, Guardian Council, Argus Media, Vehicles, Afp, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, AFP, for Human Rights, Trump Locations: Tehran, Iran, Afrasiabi, Islamic Republic, Mideast, Washington, Pezeshkian, Kurdish Iranian, Iranian, Istanbul