Erdogan ‘would welcome’ run-off vote after tight race for presidency
TURKEY’S leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu were locked in a tight race for the presidency today with the election result looking set to be decided by a run-off vote.
Mr Erdogan, who has ruled his country with an increasingly firm grip for 20 years, said he could still win but would respect the nation’s decision if the election goes to a second round in two weeks’ time.
With counting nearly completed, Mr Erdogan had 49.3 per cent of the vote — just short of the 50 per cent needed for victory. Mr Kilicdaroglu, who leads a six-party opposition alliance, was on 45 per cent.
Mr Erdogan, 69, addressed supporters from the balcony of his AK Party headquarters in the capital Ankara today. “We don’t yet know if the elections ended in the first round... If our nation has chosen for a second round, that is also welcome,” he said.
The election centred on domestic issues such as the economy, civil rights and the earthquake which killed more than 50,000 people across 11 southern provinces in February.
Mr Kilicdaroglu, the 74-year-old Nation’s Alliance candidate, said Mr Erdogan had lost the trust of a country now demanding change. “We will absolutely win the second round... and bring democracy,” he said.
Freedom of expression and assembly have been suppressed under Mr Erdogan, and Turkey is wracked by a cost-ofliving crisis that critics blame on his mishandling of the economy.
The country is also reeling from the effects of February’s earthquake, when thousands of people were killed in unsafe buildings. Mr Erdogan’s government has been criticised for its delayed response to the disaster, as well as a lax implementation of building codes.
The election results, whether they come within days or after a second round, will determine if a Nato ally that straddles Europe and Asia but borders Syria and Iran remains under Mr Erdogan’s control or follows a more democratic path promised by Mr Kilicdaroglu.
Polls closed yesterday after nine hours of voting in the national election, which could grant Mr Erdogan another five-year term. Voters also elected members for the 600-seat parliament, which has lost much of its legislative power under Mr Erdogan’s executive presidency. The AKP received 35 per cent of the votes, with more than 96 per cent of the votes counted, according to state news agency AA — the party’s worst score since it was first voted in back in 2002. It suggests the party will have 267 MPs, losing 28 seats.
The opposition has promised to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy if it wins the ballots for both presidency and legislature. More than 64 million people, including 3.4 million overseas, were eligible to vote in the elections. Turkey will this year mark the centenary of its establishment as a republic — a modern, secular state born on the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.