2023-05-15 00:29:00
Türkiye will go to a runoff in its general elections after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu got less than half the votes needed to win in the first round, instance that is considered a setback for the president, always re-elected in the last 20 years without having to reach the second electoral turn.
With 96% of the ballot, the conservative Erdogan, 69, obtained 49.1% of the votes, while his rival, the social democrat and secular Kilicdaroglu, 74, 45.2%, according to the independent agency ANKA.
To ensure victory in the first round, candidates need at least 50% of the vote plus one. The figures can still evolve, but they open the way to a second round on May 28.
Meanwhile, the official Anadolu agency gave Erdogan a better position, although insufficient.
A second round is something unprecedented in that country of 85 million inhabitantswhich celebrates this year the hundred years of the founding of its republic.
Nationalist Sinan Ogan came in third with about 5% of the vote: More than two and a half million citizens voted in his favour.
Polls released before the election had predicted a slight lead in favor of Kilicdaroglu, but most spoke of a runoff.
what was chosen
More than 60.9 million Turkish citizens were called to the polls this Sunday to elect the president and the members of the 28th. legislature.
In addition, the 600 members of the Grand National Assembly (parliament) were elected by proportional representation in 87 constituencies.
These seats were contested by 24 political parties and 151 candidates for independent deputies. A party needs at least 7% of the support to enter the legislative assembly.
In 2018, in the last presidential elections, Erdogan won in the first round with more than 52.5% of the votes..
Large crowds gathered in front of the polling stations where Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu voted.
“We have all missed democracy very much. We all miss being together”Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said after voting at a school in the capital Ankara, where his supporters chanted “President Kilicdaroglu!”
The opposition, before knowing the final scrutiny, declared itself the winner. “We are in the lead,” Kilicdaroglu tweeted.
Leading opposition figures claimed the government was purposely slowing down the count in districts where Kilicdaroglu enjoyed strong support.
“They are challenging the count that comes out of the polls, in which we have a massive advantage,” the opposition mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, told the press, the AFP news agency reported.
According to Imamoglu, who was one of those who wanted to contest the presidential elections for the CHP, the internal opposition tally shows that Kilicdaroglu got 49% of the vote and Erdogan just 45%.
Neither of these two counts, however, avoided the possibility of a second round in two weeks.
The six-party National Alliance led by Kilicdaroglu promises to dismantle the presidential form of government narrowly voted in a referendum in 2017 and return the country to a parliamentary form of government.
Meanwhile, before the polls closed, Erdogan said the vote was underway “without any problem.”
“I am hopeful that after the night count there will be a better future for our country, our nation and Turkish democracy,” he was quoted as saying by the DPA news agency.
Later, when the vote count had exceeded 50% and they showed an advantage in his favor, he said the day was a “great festival of democracy” carried out “in peace and quiet”, the official Anadolu agency quoted.
The elections demonstrate the “democratic maturity” of Turkey, he said in a message on Twitter.
The fact that the 14 May elections took place in the form of a great feast of democracy with peace and tranquility is an expression of the democratic maturity of our Turkey.
— Recep Tayyip Erdogan (@RTErdogan) May 14, 2023
“Seeing that the elections were held in such a positive democratic environment, and while the votes are still being counted, rushing to announce the results would be a usurpation of the national will,” he said.
In addition, he urged those who supervised the process not to leave their places until the end of the counts and the results are officially announced.
The situation in Türkiye
Erdogan came to the vote in a country hit by an economic crisis, with a currency devalued by half in two years and inflation that topped 85% in the fall.
The earthquake on February 6, which collapsed tens of thousands of buildings and caused the death of at least 50,000 people and displaced more than 3 million, called into question the omnipotence of a mega-president who centralizes all powers.
Indeed, Erdogan has pointed out as one of his great achievements the modernization of Turkey through construction, on which he based his success during his first decade in power, since he was prime minister.
However, the earthquake revealed the corruption of contractors and authorities, who granted construction permits that did not comply with anti-seismic regulations.
In an attempt to appeal to voters affected by inflation, he increased salaries and pensions and subsidized electricity and gas bills.
The president expanded the political alliance of his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, with two nationalist parties to include a leftist and two fringe Islamists.
Meanwhile, the opposition alliance said it will restore the independence of the judiciary and the central bank, institute checks and balances and reverse the democratic rollback and the crackdown on free speech and dissent under Erdogan.
Turkey, a NATO member country, enjoys a privileged position between Europe and the Middle East and is an important diplomatic actor.
Erdogan accuses the opposition of being close to “terrorists”, of being “drunken” and of standing up for LGBTQ rights, which he says are a threat to traditional family values.
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