2023-05-28 20:46:03
He president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoganled this Sunday the vote count of the electoral runoff and he was cherishing a historic re-election that would allow him to retain power and succeed in his biggest challenge at the polls in 20 years at the helm of the strategic country.
After counting 98 percent of the votes, according to the official Anadolu agency, Erdogan, at the head of the Justice and Development Party (AKP, Islamoconservative), reached the 52.1 percent of the votes, while his Social Democratic challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, had 47.9 percent.
“Our nation has entrusted us with the responsibility of running the country for the next five years.Erdogan told supporters from atop a bus in his home district of Istanbul.
The results confirm the predictions for this Second roundin which the outgoing president came as the favorite, despite the desire for change on the part of the electorate, the galloping inflation and the denunciations of the restrictions of freedoms in a country where there are tens of thousands of imprisoned or exiled opponents.
“Every election is a rebirth,” assured the Islamo-conservative leader, who promised that “we will fulfill all the promises made to the people”, before a crowd gathered in Istanbul and waving Turkish flags.
Spontaneous rallies to celebrate the victory also took place in other cities, especially in the Anatolian region in the center of the country.
The road to ballot
In the first round of the presidential elections, held on May 14, Erdogan came out first with more than 4 percent ahead of Kilicdaroglu, but without the necessary votes to avoid today’s ballotage.
Some 60 million Turks were eligible to vote if they extended the mandate of the 69-year-old president for another five years, who after voting this Sunday stressed to journalists that it was the first runoff of a presidential election in Turkish history.
He also praised the high voter turnout in the first round and said he expected turnout to be high again on Sunday.
“I pray to God that (the election) will be beneficial to our country and our nation,” he said.
Kilicdaroglu, 74, a candidate for a six-party coalition, had come in second in the first round with 45 percent of the vote. On that occasion, he had denounced that “the election was carried out in very difficult circumstances, there were all kinds of slander and defamation.”
However, the latest polls indicated that Erdogan, who won the support of ultranationalist candidate Sinan Ogan, third with 5 percent of the votes in the first round, he would maintain the same percentage difference in the second round, and would be re-elected in a historic day.
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