2023-05-27 19:31:52
The two rival candidates for the presidency of Türkiye, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogancurrent holder of the position, and the social democrat Kemal Kilicdaroglu They tried this Saturday to convince the few still undecided voters, on the eve of the second and decisive round of the elections.
Erdogan starts with a huge advantage for the elections this Sunday, having obtained 49.5% of the ballots in the first round, held on May 14, compared to 44.9 for Kiliçdaroglu, so it would be enough for him to scratch a few hundred thousand more votes to win.
Instead, his rival needs more than two million to match him.
For political observers it is difficult to estimate who the 5.2% who in the first round marked the name of the third candidate, the far-right Sinan Ogan, will lean, since he has declared his support for Erdogan, but the two parties that nominated him have given their support to Kiliçdaroglu.
“Los voters who chose Ogan in the first round are more likely to go for Kiliçdaroglu in the second,” says Ilyas Bassoy, an expert in electoral communication.
“This is a new election, with an outcome that is not certain in advance. Whoever knows how to attract the vote of those who did not go to the polls on the first date will win“, explains the expert to EFE.
But given that already in the second round the turnout at the polls was 89% (86% if the 3 million voters residing abroad are also counted), the highest in the last decade, it is doubtful that there are still many undecided citizens.
“If the turnout goes down, Erdogan’s chances go up, because his voters are more disciplined,” said Tugrul Türkes, a deputy for the AKP, Erdogan’s Islamist party.
Just in case, the head of state has not tired of remembering the importance of youreveryone go vote and to warn in all the rallies that the greatest danger would be to be carried away by the “drunkenness of victory”.
At least the voters abroad have taken notice: lParticipation has exceeded in some points that of the first round.
For his part, Kiliçdaroglu has denounced the numerous obstacles that the administration has imposed on his campaign.
Some cities have banned the screens that his party, the social democrat CHP, has placed in public squares to broadcast a multi-hour interview of their candidate on the popular YouTube channel Babala TV, in which Kiliçdaroglu answered critical questions from a young audience.
At the same time, he denounces the party, Erdogan’s posters have been hung outside military barracksschools and mosques, when these public spaces should remain neutral.
Kiliçdaroglu has also denounced a “total blockade”, complaining that mobile phone operators have prevented journalists from sending text messages to announce their program.
Besides, Erdogan has refused to face his rival in a televised debate despite the long tradition of this type of public confrontation in Turkey.
The vast majority of stations broadcast incessantly the president’s messages and dedicate little space to his competitor.
According to the CHP, public television TRT has dedicated 50 hours to Erdogan in the campaign, but less than 50 minutes to Kiliçdaroglu.
On the other hand, the defenders of the aspiring candidate emphasize that Kiliçdaroglu has already achieved something unprecedented in Turkey: to unite in the same voter base a large nationalist and right-wing sector with that of the left that defends the rights of the Kurdish population.
“There is hope for a reconciliation between those who represent Turkish nationalism and those who represent Kurdish nationalism, together in favor of a democratic system. This is a dream for years“, writes the sociologist Emre Kongar in the Cumhuriyet newspaper.
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