With more than 75 percent of the votes counted, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to be leading in the Turkish presidential election, which was held on Sunday. The chairman of the Supreme Electoral Council in Turkey reports this on Sunday evening, writes Reuters news agency. According to those preliminary results, Erdogan would have a lead of 53.41 percent.
Other Turkish media also write on the basis of provisional figures that Erdogan has an advantage over his challenger Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. Erdogan has since claimed victory. “The only winner is Turkey,” said the current president. He thanked voters for their confidence and lashed out at Kiliçdaroglu. “Bye, bye, bye Kemal,” he said teasingly to his supporters, who responded with loud boos. The latter is in line with the tone of the presidential election campaign, in which both candidates fiercely attacked each other and called for anything and everything.
Two weeks ago, AKP leader Erdogan was leading in the first round of elections with 49.5 percent, versus 44.9 percent for CHP leader Kiliçdaroglu. The nationalist Sinan Ogan took more than 5 percent and rallied behind Erdogan after the first round of voting. Because the 69-year-old Erdogan managed to get just under half of the votes, a second round was necessary. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this on Sunday: according to state news agency Anadolu, the turnout was above 85 percent. That was more than 3 percentage points lower than for the first round.
In power since 2003
If Erdogan wins, his 20-year reign will be extended by another five years. Yet it was not a race for the Turkish president: in polls conducted prior to the first round of voting, he did not lead for the first time. However, the measured difference with Kiliçdaroglu was small.
Although Erdogan has a strong following, the economic policy of the head of state has been criticized in recent years: Turkey has been struggling with raging inflation for years. His increasingly authoritarian style of government can also count on opposition from critics. The earthquakes earlier this year, which killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey, brought Erdogan’s construction policies under fire.
The Emir of Qatar was there like the chickens on Sunday evening to congratulate Erdogan. Even before there was a final election result, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani wrote on Twitter that he wishes the Turkish President success in his new term in office and that he is confident that ties between the two countries will remain strong.
Erdogan, who was mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s, became prime minister of Turkey in 2003. He remained in office until 2014, after which he could no longer be re-elected as head of government. To remain in power, Erdogan subsequently ran for president – a position that had been largely ceremonial until then. After he was elected president himself, a referendum was held to convert Turkey to a presidential system – which happened in 2017.