In his last television appearance before the election, Recep Tayyip Erdogan underlined that he would respect the voters’ decision and accept the result of the election, whatever it was. He believes in the Turkish people and has always respected their will, the president said in a conversation that was broadcast live by more than 20 channels; He also expects the same from his political opponents if he is confirmed in office on Sunday.
So far, however, this has not happened. The decision on the political future of the Turkish president will probably be made in a runoff election on May 28th. After Sunday’s election, Erdogan was ahead of opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, but below the 50 percent mark he would have needed to win in the first round.
Erdogan’s coalition government suffered losses in the parliamentary elections held at the same time, but was able to maintain its majority in parliament.
According to counting results from the state news agency Anadolu, Erdogan was included at 10:30 p.m. CEST 49.9 percent. Kilicdaroglu came up accordingly 44.3 percent. According to the private news agency Anka, Erdogan came up 49 percentwhile Kilicdaroglu 45 percent received.
According to Anka and Anadolu, the third candidate in the race for the presidency, the right-wing nationalist Sinan Ogan, could count on five percent of the vote. In the last election in 2018, Erdogan won with 52.6 percent in the first ballot.
In the parliamentary elections, Anadolu predicted that the government alliance led by Erdogan’s AKP party would hold 325 of the 600 seats in parliament; that would be 19 fewer seats than before. The AKP would have lost around six percentage points compared to 2018.
AKP lost votes
Erdogan and the AKP lost votes in Istanbul and Ankara, as well as in southern provinces such as Antalya, in the Kurdish south-east and north-east. Unlike on previous election evenings, Erdogan refrained from a victory speech. But if the preliminary results were to be confirmed, the opposition would still have missed their most important goals. Kilicdaroglu had hoped for a win in the first round and was optimistic on election night via Twitter: “We’re ahead,” he wrote.
The opposition accused the Anadolu agency and Erdogan’s ruling AKP party of withholding voting results in order to make Kilicdaroglu’s share of the vote appear lower. The results were published late, especially in the big cities, where the opposition was particularly strong. The AKP rejected the allegation of irregularities.
Turkey faces a tough election campaign in the two weeks leading up to the run-off election. Erdogan had accused Kilicdaroglu and the opposition of working with the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK in the last few days before Sunday’s election. The opposition accuses the president and government of failure in economic policy, the repression of dissidents and corruption.
In 2017, Erdogan implemented a presidential system that gave him great powers. Kilicdaroglu wants to abolish this system and return to parliamentary democracy. A few things would also change in economic and foreign policy at the end of the Erdogan era. Kilicdaroglu has announced that he will strengthen fundamental rights and improve Turkey’s relations with the West, which have been in a permanent crisis for years.
