Erdogan takes lead in unofficial count in presidential runoff
TURKIYE ELECTIONS
ANKARA: Preliminary, unofficial results from Turkish news agencies showed incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead with 88 per cent of ballot boxes counted in a presidential runoff that will decide whether the country’s longtime leader stretches his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade.
The state Anadolu news agency showed Erdogan at 53 per cent, and his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, at 47 per cent.
Meanwhile, the ANKA news agency, close to the opposition, showed the results at 51 per cent for Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu at 49 per cent.
The outcome could have implications far beyond Ankara. Turkiye stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it plays a key role in NATO.
Erdogan’s government vetoed Sweden’s bid to join NATO and purchased Russian missile-defence systems, which prompted the United States to oust Turkiye from a US-led fighterjet project. But it also helped broker a crucial deal that allowed Ukrainian grain shipments and averted a global food crisis.
The competing news agencies get their data from completed ballot box counts that are gathered by personnel on the field, and are strong in different regions, explaining some of the variation in preliminary data.
Turkiye’s electoral board sends its own data to political parties throughout the vote count but doesn’t declare official results until days later.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been at Turkiye’s helm for 20 years, was favoured to win a new fiveyear term in the second-round runoff, after coming just short of outright victory in the first round on May 14.
The divisive populist finished four percentage points ahead of Kilicdaroglu (pronounced KEH-lich-DAHROH-loo), the candidate of a six-party alliance.
Erdogan’s performance came despite crippling inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake three months ago. It was the first time he didn’t win an election where he ran as a candidate.
The two candidates offered sharply different visions of the country’s future, and its recent past.
“This election took place under very difficult circumstances, there was all sorts of slander and defamation,” the 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu told reporters after casting his ballot. “But I trust in the common sense of the people. Democracy will come, freedom will come, people will be able to wander the streets and freely criticize politicians.”
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote at a school in Istanbul, Erdogan noted that it’s the first presidential runoff election in Turkiye’s history.
He also praised high voter turnout in the first round and said he expected participation to be high again on Sunday. He voted at the same time as Kilicdaroglu, as local television showed the rivals casting ballots on split screens.
“I pray to God, that it (the election) will be beneficial for our country and nation,” he said.
Critics blame Erdogan’s unconventional economic policies for skyrocketing inflation that has fuelled a cost-of-living crisis.
Many also faulted his government for a slow response to the earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people in Turkiye.
In the mainly Kurdish-populated province of Diyarbakir one of 11 regions that was hit by the February 6 earthquake 60-year-old retiree Mustafa Yesil said he voted for “change.”
“I’m not happy at all with the way this country is going. Let me be clear, if this current administration continues, I don’t see good things for the future,” he said.
“I see that it will end badly this administration has to change.”