Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey, was in a close election battle on Sunday, with a potential make-or-break runoff against his main rival as the last votes were being tallied. Erdogan has controlled his nation with an increasingly tight grip for the past 20 years.
Whether the results are announced soon or after a second round of voting takes place in two weeks, they will determine whether Erdogan maintains control of a NATO ally that borders Syria and Iran while straddling Europe and Asia or reverts to the more democratic course pledged by his main rival, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Speaking to his supporters in Ankara, Erdogan stated that while a runoff election in two weeks was possible, he would respect the country’s choice.
“We still don’t know whether the first round of voting was successful. Early on Monday, Erdogan remarked, “If our people has decided for a second round, that is also good. Votes from Turkish residents living abroad still need to be counted. In 2018, he received 60% of the vote from abroad.
Domestic concerns including the economy, civil rights, and a February earthquake that claimed more than 50,000 lives dominated this year’s race. But because of Erdogan’s sometimes unpredictable economic management and initiatives to position Turkey at the heart of international discussions, Western countries and foreign investors also anticipated the conclusion.
Voter support for the incumbent had fallen below the threshold necessary for him to win reelection with an absolute majority when the unofficial count was almost finished. According to the state-run news agency Anadolu, Erdogan received 49.6% of the vote while Kilicdaroglu, the nominee of a six-party coalition, received 44.7%.
The Supreme Electoral Board, which oversees elections in Turkey, said that it was giving rival political parties results “instantly” and would make the results known once the count was finished and official.
The board said that the majority of the 3.4 million abroad voters who were qualified to cast votes still needed to be counted and that a runoff election on May 28 was not certain.
Erdogan is most likely to have the upper hand in a runoff since the president’s party is most likely to do better in the parliamentary election that was also conducted on Sunday, according to Howard Eissenstat, an associate professor of Middle East history and politics at St. Lawrence University in New York. Voters wouldn’t choose a “divided government,” he said.
Since 2003, 69-year-old Erdogan has served as Turkey’s president or prime minister. Prior to the election, polls had shown that the increasingly authoritarian leader was only behind his opponent.
Members of Kilicdaroglu’s center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, contested Anadolu’s early findings, claiming the state-run organization was biased in favor of Erodgan despite the partial results suggesting otherwise.
The opposition, according to Omer Celik, a spokesman for Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) party, is engaged in “an attempt to assassinate the national will.” He labeled the charges made by the opposition as “irresponsible.”
Kilicdaroglu, 74, ran for office on promises to reverse crackdowns on free speech and other forms of democratic backsliding as well as to repair an economy that has been battered by high inflation and currency devaluation. While Erdogan hopes to win a five-year term that would keep him as Turkey’s leader well into his third decade.
The 600-seat Turkish parliament, which has lost most of its legislative authority since a referendum to switch the nation’s style of government to an executive president barely passed in 2017, was also re-elected by voters.
According to the Anadolu news agency, with 92% of the ballots tallied, Erdogan’s coalition of governing parties was hovering around 50%, Kilicdaroglu’s Nation coalition was at about 35%, and a pro-Kurdish party was above 10%.
The fact that the election results are not official does not alter the reality that the country has picked us, according to Erdogan.
