Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
This will be interesting
The last time Masoud Pezeshkian set out to be elected president of Iran, in 2021, Iran’s conservative regime barred him and his entire reformist camp from running.
This time, Iranian authorities allowed the 69-year-old heart surgeon and political veteran onto the ballot as the sole presidential candidate publicly committed to relaxing the country’s strict moral codes regarding women and reviving dialogue with the West.
That Pezeshkian was allowed to run at all indicated that the Iranian establishment considered him to be a safe choice. In turn, his victory on Saturday, with 53% of the vote in an election that saw a surge in turnout, signaled the level of public concern about the hard-line policies that his opponent espoused.
ezeshkian’s low-key, cautious approach to politics has enabled him to survive while heavyweight political moderates were driven from the political arena. He defeated the conservative candidate Saeed Jalili in the contest to choose a successor to the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash.
The last time Masoud Pezeshkian set out to be elected president of Iran, in 2021, Iran’s conservative regime barred him and his entire reformist camp from running.
This time, Iranian authorities allowed the 69-year-old heart surgeon and political veteran onto the ballot as the sole presidential candidate publicly committed to relaxing the country’s strict moral codes regarding women and reviving dialogue with the West.
That Pezeshkian was allowed to run at all indicated that the Iranian establishment considered him to be a safe choice. In turn, his victory on Saturday, with 53% of the vote in an election that saw a surge in turnout, signaled the level of public concern about the hard-line policies that his opponent espoused.
ezeshkian’s low-key, cautious approach to politics has enabled him to survive while heavyweight political moderates were driven from the political arena. He defeated the conservative candidate Saeed Jalili in the contest to choose a successor to the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a May helicopter crash.