Hardliner Jalili and moderate Pezeshkian face voter apathy

The zealous anti-Westerner and the low-key moderate hoping to become Iran’s next president could struggle to mobilise millions of supporters in Friday’s
run-off election amid voter apathy about a tightly-controlled contest.
Over 60% of voters abstained from the June 28 ballot for a successor to Ebrahim Raisi following his death in a helicopter crash, a historic low turnout which critics of the government see as a vote of no confidence in the Islamic Republic. 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.