Iran's Khamenei says turnout in presidential election was 'lower than expected'

Reuters

July 3, 2024 at 6:36 a.m.·1 min read

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei marks anniversary of Islamic republic founder Khomeini's death

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that the turnout in the first round of the country's presidential election was "lower than expected", semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Turnout was about 40%, Iran's interior ministry said - the lowest on record since the 1979 revolution.

"We hope that people's turnout for the second round will be important and a source of pride for the Islamic Republic," Khamenei said, calling upon Iranians to cast their ballot this coming Friday.

Friday's vote will be a tight race between lawmaker Massoud Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, and former Revolutionary Guards member Saeed Jalili.

The election is to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

Khamenei added that the lower-than-expected turnout was due to "several factors" and that claims that non-voters were against the Islamic Republic were "strongly mistaken".

(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom, Elwely Elwelly; Editing by Michael Georgy and Alex Richardson)

Associated Press
The Latest | Iran holds runoff election to replace a president killed in a helicopter crash
Iranians were voting Friday in a runoff election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a May helicopter crash in the country's northwest along with the foreign minister and several other officials. Voters will choose between hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who has aligned himself with those seeking a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. After a record-low turnout in the first round of voting June 28, it remains unclear how many Iranians will take part in Friday’s poll.
CNN
Iranians are voting in a presidential runoff. What will it mean for the world?
Pezeshkian and Jalili are on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Each candidate could lead Iran in a starkly different manner at a time when the country is grappling with delicate domestic and international problems.
HuffPost
Trump Throws 4th Of July Fit In 'Disgraceful' New Holiday Tantrum
Critics called out the former president for a bonkers Independence Day message that barely mentioned the holiday.
The Daily Beast
Conservatives Routed in Worst Election Result for 200 Years
LONDON—The Conservatives, the world’s winningest political party, were booted out of power in dramatic style on Thursday after 14 years of chaotic and divisive rule.The Labour Party had secured a landslide victory, ending an era of Conservative rule over Britain that stretches back to 2010; the year that the iPad and Instagram were launched and Lady Gaga wore that meat dress to the MTV music awards.In that time, the Conservatives have cycled through five leaders, each of them dragging the party
Deadline
Donald Trump Congratulates Right-Wing Pal Nigel Farage On UK Election Win But Ignores New Prime Minister Keir Starmer
Donald Trump has been congratulating his old pal Nigel Farage this morning on a good night for Reform UK, while completely ignoring the man who has just led the Labour Party to a landslide. Trump took to his Truth Social platform in the early hours of this morning to wish Farage the best. “Congratulations to …
The Daily Beast
Trump Caught on Video Claiming ‘Broken-Down’ Biden Has Quit: ‘It’s Kamala’
Donald Trump delivered a brutal assessment of Joe Biden’s performance against him in last week’s presidential debate, calling the president a “broken-down pile of crap” teetering on the verge of “quitting the race” in a video provided by a source to The Daily Beast.“He just quit, you know—he’s quitting the race,” Trump says, sitting in a golf cart. “I got him out of the—and that means we have Kamala.”Later in the clip, he fawns over Chinese President Xi Jinping, calling him “a fierce man, very t
CNN
9 out of 10 voters say there are important differences between Biden and Trump. Here’s what they see as the biggest ones
If there’s one thing that American voters overwhelmingly agree on, it’s that this year’s presidential election presents a stark choice. In the latest CNN poll by SSRS, 91% of registered voters say they see important differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, dwarfing even the 77% of voters who said last fall that there were significant divides between the Democratic and Republican parties. Even among the so-called “double haters” – those with unfavorable views of
HuffPost
‘Pile Of Crap’: Trump Rails Against Biden, Harris In Unhinged Rant Caught On Video
The former president ripped into his rivals in newly leaked footage.
The Daily Beast
Donald Trump Claims Republicans' Project 2025 has Nothing to Do With Him: ‘Abysmal'
Donald Trump rushed to distance himself from the Republicans’ highly controversial Project 2025 Friday, calling parts of it “ridiculous and abysmal.”The ex-president used his Truth Social platform to disavow the platform, drawn up by the Heritage Foundation, which offers a 900-page preview of how the most powerful think-tank in the conservative movement wants him to govern. He acted three days after the man who drew it up told Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, “We are in the process of the second
HuffPost
Mary Trump Says There's Only 1 Thing 'Scarier' Than Her Uncle Becoming President Again
Donald Trump's niece called on voters to "roll up our sleeves and get to work" to secure democracy.
HuffPost
James Carville Issues Blunt Plea To Democratic Donors About Ditching Joe Biden
The longtime Democratic strategist reportedly warned donors what he’d do if “we don’t do something about this.”
Global News
Freeland defends implementation of digital services tax
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland defended the government’s decision to move forward on implementing the digital services tax, adding that it has had “detailed conversations” with the U.S. despite the American government’s public protestations. Freeland said a number of G7 countries already have such a tax in place.
HuffPost
Authoritarianism Expert Exposes Chilling ‘Codeword’ In ‘Project 2025’ Plan For Trump
Ruth Ben-Ghiat highlighted “one of the most alarming things” about the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s handbook for a potential second Trump term.
The Canadian Press
Conservatives vow to remove Liberals' pick for Canadian Human Rights Commission
OTTAWA — The Opposition Conservatives vowed Friday that a future Pierre Poilievre-led government would remove the man the Liberals just appointed to lead the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
INSIDER
How Obama mentored the new UK prime minister to help him tell his story
The leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has been mentored by Barack Obama. The relationship is likely to continue if Starmer wins the UK election.
HuffPost
Trump Spokesperson’s Insane Call For ‘Total Surrender’ Shot Down On Newsmax
“My advice to the Democrat Party would be total surrender now,” a Trump campaign official said on the conservative network.
HuffPost
Ex-CIA Director Says What ‘Appalls And Worries Me Most’ About Trump Immunity Ruling
“This is certainly not the America I thought we would live in as we celebrate the 248th anniversary of our country’s independence,” said John Brennan.
Bloomberg
EU Warns Hungary’s Orban Against Plan to Visit Russia
(Bloomberg) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday he is on a “fact-finding” mission and not negotiating on behalf of the European Union about the war in Ukraine, even as the bloc warned him not to visit Moscow.Most Read from BloombergKamala Harris Is Having a Surprise Resurgence as Biden’s Campaign UnravelsSingapore Couples Are Marrying Earlier to Buy Homes, Leading Some to RegretSingapore Is Making Life Tougher for Global TalentBiden’s Fourth of July Shrouded by Pressure to Drop
HuffPost
‘Lasted A Week’: Maggie Haberman Swipes At Trump’s Fourth Of July Tantrum
Some have suggested that the former president has shown uncharacteristic restraint in the wake of Biden’s abysmal debate performance.
The Daily Beast
Biden Says He Needs More Sleep and Won’t Do Events After 8
Joe Biden’s week from hell was punctuated on the Fourth of July, with sources revealing he told Democratic governors behind closed doors that he, the most powerful politician on the planet, has asked his advisers to no longer schedule events that begin later than 8 p.m.It’s a bombshell revelation, first reported by The New York Times, that further calls into question Biden’s fitness and position atop Democrats’ presidential ticket. Biden has been adamant since his disaster of a debate a week ago

Latest Stories