Erdogan faces tough challenge as voting concludes in Turkiye

Ankara, May 14

Early results from Turkiye’s presidential election on Sunday showed President Tayyip Erdogan well ahead with 59.47 per cent of votes compared to opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu with per cent, although the gap was expected to narrow as more votes are counted.

Broadcaster HaberTurk gave the results based on a count of 9.1 per cent of ballot boxes. Initial results were expected to be favourable for Erdogan, as many of the first counts typically come from his conservative, rural heartland.

Four sources from Turkiye’s opposition said they believed Kilicdaroglu was ahead by a narrow margin. Sunday’s vote is one of the most consequential elections in the country’s 100-year history, a contest that could end Erdogan’s imperious 20-year rule and reverberate well beyond Turkey’s borders.

Opinion polls before the election had given Kilicdaroglu, who heads a six-party alliance, a slight lead, with two polls on Friday showing him above the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright. If neither wins more than 50 per cent of the vote, a runoff will be held on May 28.

The presidential vote will decide not only who leads Turkiye, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy.

Polling stations officially closed at 5 pm (1400 GMT) after nine hours of voting. The elections are being intently watched in Western capitals, the Middle East, NATO and Russia. — Reuters

‘Economic strain hit Erdogan’s popularity in recent years’

• Erdogan’s popularity has slipped recently as a series of currency crashes and a deepening cost-of-living crisis were brought on by his policy of slashing interest rates
• He retains strong support among rural and working-class conservatives and nationalists and he could yet prevail in presidential and parliamentary votes, pollsters say