Reformist hopes for breakthrough as Iran votes in presidential election

Iranians voted on Friday in a presidential election where a lone reformist aimed for a breakthrough against a divided conservative camp.

Around 61 million Iranians were eligible to vote in the election called after the death of ultraconservative president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month.

The Guardian Council, which vets candidates, allowed the reformist Masoud Pezeshkian, 69, to run against a conservative field dominated by parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.