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

London with me Paul Henley in Iran the only reformist candidate in presidential elections will face a runoff at the end of next week with an ultra-conservative rival.

The reformist Masoud Pezeshkyan is still ahead of the conservative Saeed Jalili by a significant

margin, but the first round of voting was inconclusive and marked by historically low turnout and more than a million spoiled ballots.

The election follows the death of the ultra-conservative president Ibrahim Raise,

who was killed in a helicopter crash last month.

These residents of the capital Tehran said what they wanted to see 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. Let's get a bit more

understanding of this election and how it's going from Seevash Ardalan from

BBC Persian. He joins me live. The two candidates remaining,

Siavashvast, make the distinction between them. Tell us a bit more.

Masoud Pezishyan, the leading contender, is a pro-reform politician.

He used to be a heart surgeon before, used to be the Deputy Secretary of Parliament, and he has managed

to, despite not having a lot of charisma, inject some excitement into his

supporters base, the reformist camp, who have been pretty much alienated and marginalized throughout the years by the

hardliners who are currently running the country.

On the other hand, you have Saeed Jalili, who is as far right a politician as he can get on the

Iranian political spectrum. He has had different posts in the country. He used to be a

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