TEHRAN   -   A reformist candidate won the most votes in the first round of Iran’s presidential election and will face a conservative hardliner in a run-off next week. None of the four candidates secured more than 50% of the vote in Friday’s election, prompting a second round on July 5. The election saw the lowest voter turnout for a presidential election since the Islamic Republic was established in 1979. Reformist lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian and ultraconservative former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, who received the most votes, will face off in the runoff, according to Mohsen Eslami, the spokesperson for the election committee.

Pezeshkian led with 42.5% of the votes, followed by Jalili with 38.6%, according to the state news agency IRNA. Out of 60 million eligible voters, 24 million cast their ballots, resulting in a 40% turnout, Eslami said. The results will be reviewed by the Guardian Council, the powerful 12-member body tasked with overseeing elections and legislation, before the two candidates start campaigning again. The snap election was held after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on May 19 in the country’s remote northwest, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials.

Two conservatives dropped out of the race just a day before the elections to help the hardline candidates consolidate the conservative vote.

Pezeshkian was the only reformist candidate after dozens of other contenders were barred from running by the Guardian Council.

The Iranian electoral process has been marred by voter apathy of late, causing embarrassment to an establishment that has relied on high voter turnout to bolster its democratic credentials and popular legitimacy.

Nationwide discontent was evident in low voter turnout in both parliamentary and presidential elections in recent years. While Iran has boasted exceptionally high voter participation, its last legislative election in March recorded the lowest turnout since in 1979, despite government efforts to rally voters ahead of the ballot.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iranians to head to the polls and vote after he cast his ballot in the election on Friday morning.

“People’s participation is part of the essence of the state and continuation of the existence of the Islamic Republic and its status in the world is tied to people’s participation”, he said.

Sina Toossi, an Iran analyst and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, said Pezeshkian may have been allowed to run in the elections in an attempt to boost voter turnout.

“This move could be seen as a strategy to create a more dynamic and engaging election process, thereby encouraging greater public participation,” he told CNN.