Iran's reformist presidential candidate Masoud Pezeshkian (pictured) won the country's runoff election, defeating ultraconservative candidate Saeed Jalili, the Iranian Interior Ministry said on Saturday.
After counting all the ballots, the ministry stated that Pezeshkian, a cardiac surgeon and former health minister, won 16.4 million votes, while his rival garnered 13.5 million. Turnout in the second round of the elections increased by 10% to 49.8%, according to ministry's data.
During his campaign, Pezeshkian pledged to restart contacts with the West in a bid to ease sanctions imposed on Iran. Additionally, he promised to relax the enforcement of the country's mandatory headscarf law, which caused mass protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the hijab following government standards and died under suspicious circumstances.
