The voting stations in Turkey’s presidential runoff election have closed. The incumbent, Erdogan, is widely seen as the favorite, but his opponent, Kilicdaroglu, fought for every vote until the bitter end. In the evening, a preliminary outcome is expected.
Turkey’s presidential runoff election took place today, and voting booths have now closed. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led Turkey for the past 20 years, is widely seen as the frontrunner for a second five-year term.
Erdogan led his competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the first round of voting two weeks ago, but with 49.5 percent of the vote, he fell just short of the required absolute majority.
Kilicdaroglu, the 74-year-old chairman of the social democratic Republican People’s Party CHP, received 44.9 percent of the vote.
KILICDAROGLU: PUT AN END TO “AUTHORITARIAN” RULE
Kilicdaroglu, the opposition candidate, fought for votes until the bitter end, and when he voted in Ankara, he urged his fellow countrymen to remove Erdogan’s “authoritarian” leadership.
“I call on citizens to vote so that true democracy and freedom can find their way here, so that we can free ourselves from an authoritarian government,” Kilicdaroglu added.
Kilicdaroglu also urged voters to keep a check on the ballot boxes after the polling places had closed. After all, the presidential election was “held in difficult circumstances.”
“Every kind of slander and slander has been raised, but I trust the common sense of the citizens,” Kilicdaroglu declared in front of a large crowd of supporters outside the voting booth.
“Democracy is definitely coming to this country, and freedom will come.”
ERDOGAN CALLS FOR ELECTIONS
Erdogan voted today with his wife Emine at a voting center in Uskudar, an Asian suburb of Istanbul. He encouraged people to vote actively in the election.
“No country in the world has a 90 percent voter turnout,” he asserted. “Turkey is almost there.” I implore my fellow countrymen not to give up and to vote.”
On May 14, 87 percent of eligible voters voted in the first round of voting.
STRONG NATIONALISM
The selection is symbolic. Critics fear that if Erdogan wins again, Turkey may devolve entirely into authoritarianism. The first poll revealed an upsurge in support for nationalism, which is widespread in Turkish politics.
The context includes not just years of warfare with militant Kurds and an attempted coup in 2016, but also the admission of more than three million Syrian refugees against the backdrop of Turkey’s economic troubles.
It will also be crucial how Kurdish voters vote. The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party supported Kilicdaroglu in the first round of voting, but did not specifically identify him following his effort to gain nationalist votes, instead urged voters to oppose Erdogan’s “one-man regime.”
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