Turkish president looks to have consolidated his grip on power
● Tayyip Erdogan said to have taken a commanding lead yesterday in polls
president Tayyip Erdogan took a commanding lead yesterday in his bid for a presidency with broadly expanded powers, according to partial results reported by the country’s state-run news agency that showed him with more than 50 per cent of the vote – enough to avoid a runoff.
But the main opposition contender, Muharrem Ince, contested the report. In a tweet last night, he said only 37 per cent of ballot boxes had actually been counted, as opposed to the more than nearly 90 per cent the state-run agency Anadolu was reporting. He accused the agency of “manipulation” of the results.
The high-stakes presidential contest and a parliamentary election also held yesterday were set to either consolidate Erdogan’s grip on power or curtail his vast political ambitions. The vote will complete Turkey’s transition from a parliamentary to a new executive presidential system, a move approved in a referendum last year.
For an outright win in the presidential race, Erdogan needs more than 50 per cent of the vote to avoid a run-off on 8 July.
Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, has faced a more robust, united opposition than ever before. Opposition candidates had vowed to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy with strong checks and balances and have decried what they call Erdogan’s “one-man rule”.
Erdogan is the most powerful leader since the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He remains popular in the conservative and pious heartland, having empowered previously disenfranchised groups.
From a modest background himself, he has presided over an infrastructure boom that has modernised Turkey and lifted many out of poverty while also raising Islam’s proturkish file, for instance by lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves in schools and public offices.
But critics say he has taken an increasingly authoritarian bent. The election campaign was heavily skewed in his favour, with opposition candidates struggling to get their speeches aired on television. Erdogan directly or indirectly controls most of Turkey’s media.
With nearly 90 per cent of the country’s ballot boxes counted, according to Anadolu, Erdogan was at 53.3 per cent of the vote, with his main rival Muharrem Ince at 30.4 per cent. Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas, who ran his campaign from jail where he is being held pending trial on terrorism-related charges, was garnering 7.7 per cent. He has called the charges trumpedup and politically motivated.
Erdogan supporters waving Turkish and party flags celebrated outside his residence in Istanbul.
In the parliamentary vote, with 88 per cent of ballot boxes counted, according to Ana- dolu, Erdogan’s People’s Alliance, which includes his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and a small nationalist party, stood at 54.4 per cent, while the opposition Nation Alliance grouping together nationalists, secularists and a small Islamic-leaning party, was at 33.7 per cent.
The pro-kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, was edging past the 10 per ent threshold to enter parliament, with 10.7 per cent. If the HDP manages to get into parliament, it could threaten Erdogan’s AKP majority, meaning it will need support from another party to approve legislation.
HDP has seen nine of its lawmakers, including Demirtas, and thousands of party members jailed, and says more than 350 of its election workers have been detained since 28 April. Erdogan, 64, is seeking re-election for a five-year term with hugely increased powers under the new system, which he insists will bring prosperity and stability to Turkey, especially after a failed coup attempt in 2016 that has left the country under a state of emergency.