Presidential runoff in Turkey; Erdogan’s AKP, allies win 321 seats

ANKARA: President Tayyip Erdogan led comfortably on Monday ater the first round of Turkey’s presidential election, with his rival facing an uphill struggle to prevent the president extending his rule into a third decade in a runoff vote on May 28.

Erdogan’s AKP and its allies secured 321 seats in the National Assembly, while the opposition won 213 and the 66 remaining went to a prokurdish alliance, according to preliminary results.

With most votes counted in the presidential contest, Erdogan had 49.51% and his main opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu 44.88%, High Election Board chairman Ahmet Yener told reporters. Turnout was a very high 88.8%.

The remaining uncounted votes were not enough to tip Erdogan into outright victory, even if they all broke for him, Yener said. In the last presidential election in 2018, Erdogan won in the first round, with more than 52% of the vote.

Even as it became clear a runoff was likely, Erdogan, who has governed Turkey as either prime minister or president since 2003, painted Sunday’s vote as a victory both for himself and the country.

“That the election results have not been finalised doesn’t change the fact that the nation has chosen us,” Erdogan, 69, told supporters in the early hours of Monday. He said he would respect the nation’s decision.

Opinion polls had shown Erdogan trailing Kilicdaroglu, but the outcome suggested that the president and his AK Party were able to rally conservative voters despite a cost-of-living crisis and soaring inflation.

Kilicdaroglu, head of a six-party alliance, vowed to prevail in the runoff and accused Erdogan’s party of interfering with the counting and reporting of results. He called on his supporters to be patient, but they were downcast on Monday.

By contrast, Erdogan supporters were jubilant as the results filtered out, with cyber security engineer Feyyaz Balcu, 23, confident that Erdogan could fix Turkey’s economic woes.

“It is very important for all Turkish people that Erdogan wins the elections. He is a world leader and all the Turks and Muslims want Erdogan as president,” he said.

US President Joe Biden is “looking forward to working with whoever” wins Turkey’s knife-edge election, the White House said Monday as it praised the Nato ally for holding a peaceful vote.

“We congratulate the Turkish people for expressing their desires at the ballot box in a peaceful way,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, noting the ultimate winner is yet to be decided.

The Kremlin said it expected Russia’s cooperation with Turkey to continue and deepen whoever wins the election.