The latest Turkish election.. Who will win today?
Turkey is going through the most spectacular election in its history, and during the first round no candidate managed to reach 50% of the vote, and it is heading for a postponement for re-run on 28 May.
Turkey’s outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received only 49.4 percent of the vote, and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 44.96 percent after the ballot count, which came as a shock to Erdogan supporters who do not favor a run-off.
Deteriorating conditions and deteriorating economy
With the decline of living conditions in Turkey, the deterioration of economic conditions and the repercussions of the devastating earthquake, the chances of success of opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu have increased. At this stage, the success of the opposition will be for the first time in agreeing on a single candidate and enhancing its support in the electoral process.
Not only were the two candidates on the field, three others were running, but their failure to reach the critical mass needed to qualify for the palace chair was left Erdogan in the dark.
Second-round scenarios
The run-off will likely be Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s final match. In a related development, Erdogan warned the opposition on Twitter not to steal the national will and called on his party officials not to leave the polling stations, whatever may happen, until the results are finalized.
The opposition disputed initial figures provided by Anadolu Agency, saying that figures collected directly from polling stations showed Kilicdaroglu in the lead.
“In the past decade, internal and external pressure against the Turkish president has increased, angry protests have increased and some believe he has been able to reverse a surge in Turkey.”
Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu Await Second Round
Erdogan’s declining popularity spurred opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu to run, but at the same time, the latter confirmed that he would accept the people’s decision to hold a run-off, pointing out that outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not achieve the results he wanted in the elections, confirming his victory over Erdogan if a run-off is held.
Turkey’s Biggest Ever Participation
On a related note, Tayyip Erdogan said that the participation rate in these elections is the largest in Turkey’s political history and has no equal in the world, and that “the people are the winners of these elections, whatever the results,” stressing the necessity of “respecting the people’s decision.” Erdogan added, “We believe that we will win in the first round after the completion of counting the votes from abroad,” “We surpass our closest opponent in the elections by a difference of more than 2 million and 600 thousand votes,” “but if the people’s desire is to hold a second round of elections, then this is welcome”.
The third party will decide
International political science professor Ayman Najmeddine said the opposition and the Turkish president are in a similar position, and it will be up to the third party to choose who will present their votes to one of the candidates.
The participation of women is important, but that the file of women will not be the main issue in these elections.
