<p>Dubai: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/iran">Iran's </a>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 <em>Tasnim news agency</em> reported.</p><p>Turnout was about 40 per cent, Iran's interior ministry said - the lowest on record since the 1979 revolution.</p><p>"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.</p>.Khamenei protege, sole moderate to battle in Iran's presidential run-off.<p>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.</p><p>The election is to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.</p><p>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".</p>
<p>Dubai: <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/tags/iran">Iran's </a>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 <em>Tasnim news agency</em> reported.</p><p>Turnout was about 40 per cent, Iran's interior ministry said - the lowest on record since the 1979 revolution.</p><p>"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.</p>.Khamenei protege, sole moderate to battle in Iran's presidential run-off.<p>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.</p><p>The election is to elect a successor to President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.</p><p>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".</p>