2023-05-14 23:04:46
Dhe presidential election in Turkey is developing into a war of nerves. While the state news agency Anadolu sees the incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan clearly in the lead after counting more than 80 percent of the votes, the opposition accuses the agency of publishing false figures. Erdogan’s challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu wrote on Twitter: “We lead”. At the party headquarters of Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has repeatedly appeared before the press to announce his own figures.
After counting almost half of the ballot boxes, the candidate of the opposition alliance is 47 percent ahead of Erdogan with 43 percent. AKP spokesman Ömer Celik accused the opposition of trying to “take the will of the nation hostage”. He continued: “Our President is clearly in the lead, but we do not publish results out of respect for the will of the nation.”
Imamoglu defended the opposition’s actions. You have learned your lessons from the past, he said. It is unfortunate that election night in Turkey “is going like a movie night”. The CHP politician was confident that the opposition alliance would win in the first ballot. He also called on the opposition’s election observers not to be discouraged by the numbers and to continue to monitor the counting completely.
In the meantime, the publication of the results has slowed down. Imamoglu said the High Electoral Council had ordered the recount of ballot boxes that had been objected to by AKP election observers. “People shouldn’t be manipulated. Neither from the High Electoral Council, nor from anyone else.”
“Craziest election in decades”
According to the Anadolu Agency, Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads with around 50 percent. Kilicdaroglu comes to a good 44 percent. The supposed lead of the incumbent is already significantly lower than when the first figures were published. In previous elections, Anadolu had been accused of first selectively publishing figures from AKP strongholds in order to prematurely portray the president as the winner. The final results published later were significantly lower several times. The High Electoral Council has not yet published any figures. The independent news agency Anka saw Erdogan with 49 percent ahead of Kilicdaroglu with 46 percent.
The various media refer to results from the polling stations, which are signed by the local election committees and photographed and published by election observers. Depending on the medium, different polling stations are taken into account. Only the High Electoral Council announces the final result. The aim of the system is to make electoral fraud more difficult because ultimately all data from all polling stations is accessible and can be compared with the final result.
Meanwhile, the AKP party headquarters in Ankara was evacuated due to an alleged bomb threat. The BBC’s Turkish-language service reported that journalists were asked to leave the building. A spokesman for the party said it was a routine measure. There’s no need to worry.
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