Erdogan declared winner of Turkey’s high-stakes snap presidential elections

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won tightly contested presidential polls, the election authority said Monday, extending his 15-year grip on power as the opposition complained bitterly about the conduct of the vote count.

Turkish voters had for the first time cast ballots for both president and parliament in the snap elections, with Mr. Erdogan looking for a first-round knockout and overall majority for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The stakes were particularly high as the new president will be the first to enjoy enhanced powers, without even a prime minister, under a new constitution agreed in an April 2017 referendum strongly backed by Mr. Erdogan but which opponents say grants autocratic powers.

Mr. Erdogan defeated his nearest rival Muharrem Ince with an “absolute majority” of more than half the vote without needing a second round, said the chief of Turkey’s election authority, Sadi Guven.

“I have been entrusted by the nation with the task and duties of the presidency,” Mr. Erdogan said in a victory address at his Istanbul residence, vowing that the new presidential system would be implemented “rapidly.”

“Turkey has given a lesson in democracy to the entire world,” he added, pointing to an 88% turnout.

Mr. Erdogan won 52.5% in the presidential poll while Mr. Ince, of the secular Republican People’s Party, was on 31.5%, state-run Anadolu news agency said, based on a 99% vote count.

If confirmed, the figures would show Mr. Erdogan polling on a similar rating or even stronger than his 2014 election victory where he won his first mandate after over a decade as prime minister.

Mr. Erdogan also declared victory in the parliamentary election saying that the alliance led by the AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) had won the majority in parliament. A count of 99% of the votes showed that Erdogan’s AKP and the MHP would win 293 and 50 seats respectively, enough for an easy majority in the 600-member chamber. —