A runoff in Turkey’s presidential election appears increasingly likely as the parliamentary election has come down to a race between The People’s Alliance, which currently holds a parliamentary majority and consists of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party, and the opposition Nation Alliance, which backs Kilicdaroglu for president and is comprised of six parties.
“The gap in Turkey’s presidential election between the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his pro-Western opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has narrowed with more than 90% of the votes counted, according to state media reports.
With more than 95% of the ballot boxes opened and tallied, Erdogan’s initially comfortable lead has fallen to 49.5% – just below the 50% majority needed to avoid a runoff, according to Anadolu. His main opposition rival, Kilicdaroglu, has 44.6%, while Sinan Ogan is a distant third with 5.2%.
Turnout was high at almost 89% in Turkey and over 52% for those registered to vote abroad. While the majority of the domestic votes are already counted, most of the ballots cast outside of the country are yet to be tallied. The breakdown may also change depending on how the election body deals with the votes cast for Muharrem Ince, who had withdrawn from the race but nevertheless received around 0.5%.
The Supreme Election Council has yet to finalize the count and announce official results, but if no candidate wins at least half of the vote, a run-off will be held on May 28th. The head of the election body, Ahmet Yener, dismissed accusations from the opposition that it was delaying the results, saying on Sunday night that the data is being entered into the system and shared with political parties ‘instantaneously’”. -RT
Over sixty-four million people, including three million, four hundred thousand overseas voters, were eligible to vote in this year’s Turkish elections that will mark the centenary of the country’s establishment as a republic that was born of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire.
Leader of the Republican People's Party Kemal Kilicdaroglu has urged the national election body to hurry the release of the vote results, claiming that President Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party keeps objecting to the inevitable.
Erdogan's party, in turn, accused the rival of “an attempt to assassinate the national will”, calling the opposition claims “irresponsible".
Erdogan has also criticized Kilicdaroglu for his comments on Russia, describing Moscow as an important ally of Ankara.
It’d be predictable, should the opposition win, that they would align Turkey more with NATO than would occur under President Erdogan’s rule.
Whatever the case, given Turkey’s footprint in both Europe and the Middle East, the outcome of this election is as pivotal for Washington, D.C., and Brussels as it is for Damascus and Moscow.