Reformist Tabriz MP and former Minister of Health Massoud Pezeshkian defeated his rival Said Jalili and was elected as the 9th President of Iran. A total of 30,530,157 votes were cast in approximately 59,000 ballot boxes across the country, with Pezeshkian receiving 53.7 percent of the votes, while the conservative Said Jalili received 44.4 percent of the votes.
After the election results were announced, Pezeshkian’s supporters took to the streets in celebration. Having won 53.7 percent of the votes in the second round of the 14th term presidential election and becoming the country’s 9th President, Iran’s Massoud Pezeshkian chose the song “The Turk’s back will not bend” for his election celebrations.
WHO IS MESUD PEZEŞKİYAN?
The new President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, was born in 1954 in Mahabad, a city in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran, to a Persian Turk family. Pezeshkian, whose surname means “doctors” in Persian, completed his education at Tabriz University of Health Sciences. Pezeshkian served as both a soldier and a doctor in the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988. After the war, Pezeshkian continued his education in the Department of General Surgery at Tabriz University of Health Sciences, specializing in cardiac surgery in 1993, and served as the Rector of Tabriz University of Health Sciences for 5 years between 1994 and 1999.
Pezeshkian, who began his political career in 1997 as Deputy Minister of Health during the term of President Mohammad Khatami, served as Minister of Health between 2001 and 2005. After former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power, Pezeshkian stayed away from politics for two years and managed to enter parliament in 2008, representing the East Azerbaijan province during the 8th term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
Pezeshkian, who applied for candidacy in the 2013 presidential elections, withdrew from the race after Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani ran for office. Pezeshkian served as the Deputy Speaker of the Iranian Parliament for four years in 2016. Pezeshkian, who applied for candidacy again in the 2021 presidential elections, was rejected by the Guardian Council of the Constitution. Pezeshkian entered parliament again as a Tabriz MP in the 12th Term General Elections held on March 1. (İHA)
