Iranian state media said on July 4 that campaigning had ended one day ahead of a runoff vote between a reformist and a hard-liner to replace the country's late president in an election beset so far by record-low turnout.
The tightly vetted race has narrowed to ultraconservative Saeed Jalili and veteran reformist lawmaker and ethnic Azeri Masud Pezeshkian, who surprised many by earning the most of four candidates in voting on June 28.
Voter turnout in the first round was just 40 percent, a record low that has prompted concern at the highest levels of the country's religiously dominated leadership.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei acknowledged on July 3 that the turnout was "not as expected" but denied the lack of voter interest reflected unpopularity for Iran's leadership and called the vote "very important."
“Those who love Islam and the Islamic republic and the progress of the country must show it by taking part in the election,” said Khamenei, 85, who has the final say on all state matters.
While some of the regime's harshest critics have urged a boycott of round two, it was unclear how widespread those calls were and whether Iranians would heed them.
Iran's unelected, hard-line institutions routinely vet candidate applications to weed out perceived threats, including by disqualifying relative moderates.
This election is seen as especially important because of Khamenei's advanced age and the eventual winner's potential role in influencing the choice of the next supreme leader.
Pezeshkian won around 42.5 percent of the ballots in the first round, according to official results, while Jalili finished with 38.6 percent.
Neither of the other two candidates -- parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and former Justice Minister Mostafa Purmohammadi -- got more than 14 percent.
Critics and dissidents urged a boycott of the election, saying past votes have failed to bring change.
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'Not Free At All': Iranians Voice Need For Change Amid Snap Presidential Election
Voter turnout in Iran has been slumping since 2020, seemingly driven by frustration over a lack of freedoms and reforms, a beleaguered economy that is still subject to U.S. and other sanctions, and falling living standards.
Rights groups have alleged that Iran's authorities have cranked up suppression of critical voices on social media since ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash while returning from a visit to Azerbaijan on May 19.
Raisi was an intensely divisive figure who was relentless in his criticism of the West and accused of serving as a prosecutor for an "execution committee" that sent thousands of political prisoners and regime opponents to their deaths in the late 1980s.
He was also seen as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Khamenei.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials also died in the crash.
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with interim Iranian President Mohammad Mokhber on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kazakhstan in July 4 amid an "unprecedented upswing" in bilateral ties, Russia's Foreign Ministry said, according to Reuters.