Iran’s voters elect their first reformist president in two decades

livemint.com:

Iranians turned out in higher numbers than in previous votes to elect a reformist president who ran on a platform of re-engaging with the West and loosening the country’s strict moral codes for women. The country’s liberal voters, confronted with a stark choice between a cautious reformer and a tough hard-liner, shook off some of the disillusionment that had led to very low turnout in the initial presidential vote a week ago and turned out to the polls for a runoff that put the first reform candidate in office in two decades.

Little-known politician Masoud Pezeshkian, a 69-year-old surgeon, won with more than 53% of the vote, beating his hard-line rival Saeed Jalili, 58, according to official results announced by the Interior Ministry on state television. Turnout was 49.8%, up from 40% in the initial election and at the high end of speculation ahead of the vote.

Now Pezeshkian will have to operate in the treacherous theater of Iranian politics to manage a battered economy and an increasingly disaffected population that has erupted in protests repeatedly over the past decade. He has vowed to work to restore a 2015 pact that lifted international sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program, rein in the country’s hated morality police who force women to cover their hair, and stand against curbs on the Internet.

It has been years since Iran allowed a reformist to run for president. The result is a sign of the pressure Iran’s theocratic rulers are under as the country tires of economic decay and tight moral codes.

Iran’s government approves all candidates, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has the final say on policy. Amid the tight control, however, the government tolerates a degree of competitive presidential