ISTANBUL (dpa-AFX) – A runoff election has emerged in the race for the presidency in Turkey. When around 89 percent of the votes were counted, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was around 49.94 percent and thus below the required absolute majority of 50 percent of the votes, as the state news agency Anadolu reported on Sunday evening. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, joint candidate of a six-party alliance, reached 44.3 percent.
According to Anadolu, the candidate of an ultra-nationalist party alliance, Sinan Ogan, had 5.3 percent. Muharrem Ince of the Fatherland Party withdrew his candidacy shortly before the election, but his name was still on the ballot papers. If none of the three candidates gets more than 50 percent of the votes, the two leading candidates will go to a runoff on May 28th.
The elections in Turkey are considered trend-setting and, due to the expected domestic and foreign policy effects, one of the most important in the world this year.
The opposition and the government argued about the results published by the state agency. The opposition accused Erdogan’s conservative Islamic governing party of “tactical manoeuvres” when counting the votes. According to them, Kilicdaroglu is just ahead, the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara said at a joint press conference in the capital. Erdogan’s Islamic conservative AKP deliberately objected to the results in opposition strongholds. This makes counting slower and the result is initially in favor of the government. The chief of the electoral authority, Ahmet Yener, said there were no problems with the electoral authority.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the opposition’s statements during the ongoing count on Twitter as “stealing the national will”. AKP spokesman Ömer Celik, on the other hand, accused the opposition of a “dictatorial attitude” during the counting of votes because they announced the results early on.
Ertim Orkun, head of the independent election observer organization Oy ve Ötesi, said there were still ballot boxes being counted. There is no final report there. There are also objections to data that have already been received by the YSK electoral authority. “Of course, this slows down data entry.”
The state agency usually first publishes the counting results in Erdogan strongholds. The first data therefore do not yet allow any conclusions to be drawn about the final result.
There were also signs of a tight race in Parliament. After opening 82.7 percent of the voting boxes, the Erdogan Alliance has a narrow majority of 50.5 percent of the votes, according to Anadolu. The alliance around Kilicdaroglu would therefore only get 34.5 percent of the votes. Even with the support of the alliance around the pro-Kurdish HDP (9.5 percent), they would not have an absolute majority.
Since the introduction of a presidential system five years ago, the 69-year-old Erdogan has had more power than ever before and can largely rule without parliament. Critics fear that the country, with a population of around 85 million, could slide completely into autocracy if he wins again. The vote in the NATO country is also being closely observed internationally.
According to an initial assessment by the competent authority, the election ran smoothly. Opposition politicians reported minor incidents from various provinces.
Around 64 million people in Germany and abroad were invited to vote. In Germany, around 1.5 million people with a Turkish passport were entitled to vote.
The election campaign was tense and considered unfair, mainly because of the government’s superior media power. The dominant theme was the poor economic situation with massive inflation. Among other things, Erdogan promised an increase in civil servant salaries and further investments in the defense industry. He waged an aggressive campaign, calling the opposition “terrorists”. A popular opposition politician had been stoned just a week before the election. Kilicdaroglu wore a bulletproof vest during a performance in the Erdogan stronghold of Samsun on Friday.
Kilicdaroglu is considered a level-headed politician. He comes from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli and belongs to the Alevi religious minority. The opposition leader wants to restore the independence of institutions like the central bank and get high inflation under control. He stands for a rapprochement with Germany and the EU, but also for a stricter migration policy./jam/DP/zb