Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dominated his country with an increasingly iron grip for the past two decades. Erdogan has locked in a tight election contest early Monday. With a make-or-break runoff against his main rival imaginable as the votes were tabulated.
The outcome, whether within days or after a second round of voting in two weeks. It will determine whether a NATO ally that spans Europe and Asia. But borders Syria and Iran remain under Erdogan’s control or return to the more democratic path. Promised by Erdogan’s main rival, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Erdogan, 69, told supporters in Ankara that he may still win but would respect the nation’s decision if the race went to a runoff vote in two weeks.
“We don’t know yet whether the elections ended in the first round.” If our nation chooses a second round, that is also welcome,” Erdogan remarked early Monday. Emphasising that votes from overseas Turkish residents must still be counted. In 2018, he received 60% of the foreign vote.
This year’s election was mainly focused on domestic problems such as the economy and civil rights. And a February earthquake that killed over 50,000 people. However, due to Erdogan’s unconventional economic leadership, Western nations and foreign investors were also waiting for the outcome. Often temperamental but practical efforts to place Turkey at the centre of international negotiations.
With the unofficial vote count nearly complete, voter support for the incumbent has fallen below the majority needed to win reelection outright. According to the state-run news agency Anadolu, Erdogan received 49.3% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu received 45%.
“We will absolutely win the second round… and bring democracy.” Kilicdaroglu, the 74-year-old nominee of a six-party alliance, declared that Erdogan had lost the trust of a people now seeking change.
Runoff election not guaranteed
The Supreme Electoral Board of Turkey said it was delivering numbers to contending political parties “instantly” and would make the results public once the count was finished and finalised.
According to the board, the bulk of ballots from the 3.4 million eligible foreign voters were still to be counted, and a runoff election on May 28 was not guaranteed.
According to Howard Eissenstat, an associate professor of Middle East history and politics at St. Lawrence University in New York, Erdogan is expected to have an advantage in a runoff because the president’s party performed better in a parliamentary election held on Sunday. Voters do not want “divided government,” he claims.
Since 2003, Erdogan has served as Turkey‘s prime minister or president. Public polls showed the increasingly authoritarian king trailing his challenger in the run-up to the election.
Members of Kilicdaroglu’s centre-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, challenged Anadolu’s initial numbers. Claiming the state-run agency was biased in favour of Erodgan.
