Iran candidates hold final rallies before presidential runoff

TEHRAN: In a bustling Tehran prayer hall, ultraconservative Saeed Jalili has rallied fervent supporters ahead of Friday´s runoff presidential vote, while his reformist rival Masoud Pezeshkian stirred up a crowd in a nearby stadium.

The two candidates held their final campaign rallies late on Wednesday, after leading the first-round vote in snap elections to succeed president Ebrahim Raisi who died in a May helicopter crash.

Chants of “All Iran says Jalili” echoed as thousands of supporters of the hardline former nuclear negotiator gathered at the Grand Mosalla mosque in central Tehran, buzzing with excitement.

Jalili promised “strength and progress” if elected, as posters of the late ultraconservative Raisi adorned the walls, bearing the slogan: “A world of opportunities, Iran leaps forward.”

At an open-air stadium elsewhere in the capital, Pezeshkian made the case for “unity and cohesion”, his supporters´ chants invoking another former president -- the reformist Mohammad Khatami who has endorsed their candidate.

“Long live Khatami, long live Pezeshkian!” called the spirited crowd, waving green flags adorned with the reformist candidate´s “For Iran” slogan. At the prayer hall, women draped in black chadors sat in a designated section, separated from the men. But all burst into rapturous applause as Jalili made his entrance.