2023-05-15 01:00:00
Turkey heads into the second round of its presidential election after president and re-election candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the opposition candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, won less than half of the votes — almost all the ballots were counted this Sunday (14).
With 90.6% of the votes counted, the conservative Erdogan, 69 years old, won 49.86% of the votes. His opponent, the social democrat and secularist Kiliçdaroglu, 74, obtained 44.38%, according to the state news agency Anadolu.
To guarantee victory in the first round, candidates need at least 50% of the votes plus one. The numbers may still change, but they indicate the completion of a second round.
The opposition has already shouted victory. “We are in the lead,” tweeted Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the CHP (Republican People’s Party). Leading opposition figures claimed that the government was purposefully delaying the count in districts where Kiliçdaroglu had strong support.
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According to the mayor, the opposition’s internal count shows that Kiliçdaroglu obtained 49% of the votes, and Erdogan, only 45%. Neither count, however, precludes the possibility of a runoff in two weeks’ time.
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