Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service coming to you live from

London I'm Paul Henley. In presidential elections in Iran the only candidate to have criticized the status quo

has established a clear lead the reformist Masoud Pezeshkyan is ahead of the conservative Saeed Jalili by more than a million votes.

A second round runoff is still likely this Friday.

Turnout has been exceptionally low,

with correspondence suggesting that that means there's a declining legitimacy in some people's eyes

about the system of government in Iran. The election follows the death of the ultra-conservative

President Abraham Raise in a helicopter crash last month.

These residents of the capital Tehran said what they wanted from an incoming president.

Definitely in any point that the relationship of Iran with another country needs improvement,

surely the coming president is supposed to work on it.

My expectation is that the incoming president should take positive steps for the country,

meaning he should be a people person and be practical, not just words-based, but he should act on what he says.

Well, joining me now live in the studio is my colleague Siavash Adelan from BBC's Persian

service. Welcome, Siavash.

Just explain where we are with these elections, because between these two men, there's actually

quite a clear difference, isn't there, the leading two?

Absolutely, you have one pro-reform moderate heart surgeon.

He still believes in the status quo,

his very loyal to the regime to the Supreme Leader, but nevertheless his views are completely different to that of the

heart-right candidates Saeed Jalili.

Different how?

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