By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
     
The 14th presidential elections of the Islamic Republic of Iran took an interesting turn on June 28 and headed next Friday for the second round to determine the winner from the two candidates who polled the highest number of votes of the almost 25 million ballots cast.
All eyes are focused on the turnout for July 5 runoff between former health minister and lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian who got 10.4 million votes Friday last, while former lead nuclear negotiator and chief of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), Saeed Jalili, received 9.4 million.
The two candidates are to begin their election campaign from today Sunday until Wednesday, since campaigning has to stop 24 hours before the vote.
Anyway, Friday will determine the country’s new president following the tragic May 19 helicopter crash that resulted in the martyrdom of President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi and four of his colleagues including the energetic foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian.
The nation wants the next Chief Executive to continue the dynamic policies of the Late President who within three years transformed the Islamic Republic into a respected and powerful world country.
The Iranian voters are mature and those who for various reasons could not cast their ballots are now determined to participate to elect the person deserving to follow in the footsteps of Raisi, who forced the enemies of the Islamic Republic, especially the US and the illegal Zionist entity, on the back foot.
Today, Iran is unmoved by the pressures of the West. It has neutralized the sanctions of the US. It has rightfully taken uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity for peaceful use of nuclear energy. It has launched a variety of satellites into outers pace. It has greatly strengthened the Axis of Resistance. It is determined to end the illegal presence of the US and other outside powers in the region. 
This means the incoming president should be the one fully committed to these developments, and resolved to increase the power and prestige of the Iran with full commitment to the goals and ideology of the Islamic Revolution.
The most important point is the commitment of the Iranian President to the guidelines of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and wholehearted devotion to the ideology of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA).