2001 Iranian presidential election
# 2001 Iranian presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Iran on 8 June 2001, and resulted in Mohammad Khatami being elected as the President of Iran for his second term.

## Candidates

Although 814 candidates registered for the election, including 25 women, the Guardian Council reduced it to ten.

The final candidates were:

* Mohammad Khatami, Incumbent President
* Ahmad Tavakkoli, Former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs
* Ali Shamkhani, Incumbent Minister of Defense
* Abdollah Jassbi, Incumbent Chancellor of Islamic Azad University
* Mahmoud Kashani, Former Iranian delegation to the International Court of Justice
* Hassan Ghafourifard, Former Minister of Energy and Member of Parliament
* Mansour Razavi, Incumbent Member of City Council of Tehran
* Shahabedin Sadr, Former Member of Parliament
* Ali Fallahian, Former Minister of Intelligence
* Mostafa Hashemitaba, Incumbent Head of Physical Education Organization

## Campaign

After the scandalous final two years of his term, Mohammad Khatami was expected to be elected by a much smaller margin than in 1997. His term was marred by the unlawful arrest of political activists, killings of Iranian dissidents, and closure of several Iranian newspapers. Though Khatami was still believed to win by a landslide, this oppression was thought to significantly impact his performance in the election. Initially, Khatami had considered not running for reelection. But, after months of his supporters and party members pleading with him, he finally decided to declare his candidacy two months before the start of the election. Central to Khatami's campaign were the issues of economic revival, job growth, and democratic reform. Khatami also sought to restore the austerity of the Iranian Revolution. According to CNN, Khatami's aides described his campaign as a “referendum for reform”. Most of Khatami's nine other challengers were independent conservatives, according to BBC.

## Results

2001 Iranian presidential election :

| Candidate | Votes | % |
| - | - | - |
| Mohammad Khatami | 21,656,476 | 76.90 |
| Ahmad Tavakkoli | 4,387,112 | 15.58 |
| Ali Shamkhani | 737,051 | 2.61 |
| Abdollah Jassbi | 259,759 | 0.92 |
| Mahmoud Kashani | 237,660 | 0.84 |
| Hassan Ghafourifard | 129,155 | 0.45 |
| Mansour Razavi | 114,616 | 0.40 |
| Shahabedin Sadr | 60,546 | 0.21 |
| Ali Fallahian | 55,225 | 0.19 |
| Mostafa Hashemitaba | 27,949 | 0.09 |
| Valid votes | 27,665,549 | 98.25 |
| Blank or invalid votes | 493,740 | 1.75 |
| Totals | 28,159,289 | 100.00% |
| Sources: Sahliyeh and RFE/RL |||

### Turnout

Voter Turnout Data by Province :

| Province | Electorate | Actual Voters | Turnout |
| - | - | - | - |
| Ardabil | 806,656 | 467,859 | 58% |
| East Azerbaijan | 2,439,446 | 1,294,682 | 53.07% |
| West Azerbaijan | 1,726,987 | 974,181 | 56.41% |
| Bushehr | 512,382 | 365,099 | 71.26% |
| Esfahan | 2,852,882 | 1,735,814 | 60.84% |
| Fars | 2,676,431 | 1,821,626 | 68.06% |
| Gilan | 1,685,173 | 1,097,403 | 65.12% |
| Golestan | 964,042 | 725,934 | 75.3% |
| Hamadan | 1,179,237 | 743,372 | 63.04% |
| Hormozgan | 695,182 | 530,336 | 76.29% |
| Ilam | 325,224 | 250,759 | 77.1% |
| Kerman | 1,411,555 | 998,371 | 70.73% |
| Kermanshah | 1,243,128 | 790,685 | 63.6% |
| Khorasan | 4,129,936 | 3,124,814 | 75.66% |
| Khuzestan | 2,487,136 | 1,474,820 | 59.3% |
| Kohgiluyeh and Buyer Ahmad | 353,054 | 270,417 | 76.59% |
| Kurdistan | 910,364 | 486,596 | 53.45% |
| Lorestan | 1,080,763 | 702,936 | 65.04% |
| Markazi | 883,979 | 565,018 | 63.92% |
| Mazandaran | 1,900,246 | 1,302,654 | 68.55% |
| Qazvin | 670,614 | 500,917 | 74.7% |
| Qom | 555,944 | 428,005 | 76.99% |
| Semnan | 366,427 | 285,964 | 78.04% |
| Sistan and Baluchestan | 1,001,596 | 702,444 | 70.13% |
| Tehran | 7,643,471 | 5,202,274 | 68.06% |
| Yazd | 525,981 | 468,982 | 89.16% |
| Zanjan | 623,464 | 429,389 | 68.87% |
