Erdogan is ahead, but his lead is shrinking
7:25 p.m.: According to the latest partial results published by the Turkish newspaper “Hürriyet”, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead of his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the Turkish presidential election with 52.12 percent. This currently stands at 42.01 percent of the votes. Erdogan’s lead is melting away.
Currently less than 50 percent of the votes have been counted. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes, there is a runoff.
State media: According to the first partial results, Erdogan leads the election
6:41 p.m.: In the presidential election in Turkey, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead according to the first, not yet reliable, partial results of the state agency. After counting more than 25 percent of the votes, Erdogan came to around 54 percent, as the state news agency Anadolu reported on Sunday evening. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu was in second place with around 40 percent.
The spokesman for Kilicdaroglu’s CHP party, Faik Öztrak, said the first data they received were “extremely positive” for the opposition. He accused Anadolu of “manipulation”.
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.
Kurdish organization reports “many election manipulations on a smaller scale”
6:14 p.m.: According to a Kurdish organization, there was “a lot of election manipulation on a smaller scale” in the elections in Turkey. For example, it was reported in many places that ballot papers had already been stamped when they were distributed, said the Kurdish Center for Public Relations, Civaka Azad, based in Berlin on Sunday shortly after the polling stations in Turkey closed at 5 p.m. local time (4 p.m. CET). ).
Invalid notes were also distributed accordingly. In addition, according to Civaka Azad, several thousand people were prevented from voting because they were named as poll workers without their knowledge (…) or because they were not given a ballot paper because their names were allegedly not on the lists.
There have also been numerous violations of the 24-hour “propaganda ban” in force in Turkey – especially by the governing party AKP and its coalition partner MHP. For example, voters received SMS messages from candidates, and gifts or advertising were distributed in front of the polling stations.
Opposition expects record participation in elections in Turkey
4:52 p.m.: The party of Erdogan challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu expects a record turnout in the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey. That said the Istanbul CHP chair Canan Kaftancioglu early on Sunday. The polling stations closed at 4 p.m. CEST.
The first reliable results are expected in the evening. With the exception of a few cases, the election went smoothly. The head of the electoral authority YSK, Ahmet Yener, made a similar statement.
In the 2018 parliamentary and presidential elections, 86.2 percent of eligible voters cast their votes. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won then with 52.6 percent. In parliament, the AKP won a majority with the help of its ultra-nationalist partner MHP.
“The Ditib mosques drive numerous people to the polling stations”
4:11 p.m.: The political scientist Inci Öyku Yener-Rodenburg warns of Erdogan’s extended arm in Germany. The mosque association Ditib, which reports directly to the Turkish state, would have a “great influence” on voters in Germany, she says in an interview with “t-online”. “The Ditib mosques mobilize large numbers of people for the elections and even drive them to the polling stations. One shuttle bus after the other arrives there and enables people to easily get to the polling stations,” says Yener-Rodenburg.
In their sermons, imams repeatedly created a mood for Erdogan’s AKP party, according to the scientist. The community members are socialized there and often cannot resist the social pressure. The Ditib association is responsible for around 1,000 mosques in the country, which according to Yener-Rodenburg reach around 800,000 people.
Polling stations closed in Turkey
4:05 p.m.: Voting in the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey has ended. Polling stations across the country closed at 4 p.m. CEST on Sunday. Results are expected later in the evening. A total of around 64 million people in Germany and abroad were called upon to elect the president and a new parliament.
Turkey election so far “without problems”, opposition criticizes
3:01 p.m.: According to the electoral authorities, the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey have so far run without any major incidents. “So far, the elections have gone without any problems,” said the head of the YSK election commission, according to the state news agency Anadolu on Sunday. He hopes it stays that way.
The pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP confirmed a media report to the German Press Agency that election observers from the sister party YSP were attacked in the south-eastern Turkish town of Mardin. The dispute broke out after observers denied more than one family member access to the polling booth.
A CHP MP shared a video showing rows of ballot papers being stamped for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sanliurfa, Turkey. It was not possible to verify when and where the recordings were made, nor whether the ballot papers were real.
Max Lucks, Green Party politician and election observer for the Council of Europe, said the situation in the Kurdish metropolis of Diyarbakir was calm. He has never experienced the city as “relaxed and peaceful” as this weekend. “Our report on Monday will show whether this feeling is also reflected in the results of election observation.”
“Won’t re-elect Erdogan,” said earthquake victims about the president
12:32 p.m.: If the southern Turkish city of Antakya were a mood barometer for Sunday’s election, things would look bad for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the city, which was largely destroyed by the severe earthquake in February, many residents expressed their frustration with the president’s crisis management on Sunday. “I will not vote for him again, even if he were my father,” said farmer Mehmet Topaloglu at a polling station in Antakya. “We need change. We have enough.”
Semra Karakas and her 23-year-old daughter Aylin had to travel a 14-hour bus ride to vote after the devastating 7.8-magnitude earthquake on the night of February 6 forced them to settle in the coastal city of Antalya. Architecture student Aylin Karakas believes that support for conservative Erdogan in Hatay province, where Antakya is located, will “fall sharply” in the election.
“The state did not come to our aid. They didn’t come until three or four days later,” she recalls of the state’s delayed response to the disaster that killed more than 50,000 people. Aylin says it’s not difficult for her to decide between Erdogan and his secular rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The 35-year-old doctor Deryer Deniz has been living in cramped conditions in a tent since the tragedy. She doesn’t like to say whether it will be enough for Erdogan’s challenger, but: “If the government falls, Hatay will have played his part”.
Long lines in front of polling stations in Ankara and Istanbul
11.20 a.m.: The eagerly awaited presidential and parliamentary elections began in Turkey on Sunday morning. Even before the polling stations opened, long lines sometimes formed in Istanbul and Ankara. The Islamic conservative head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years – first as prime minister and since 2014 as president – could be voted out of office. His challenger, the social democrat Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is ahead of Erdogan in the polls with an alliance of six opposition parties.
The opposition wants to break with Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian course if they win the elections. Kilicdaroglu has promised a return to democracy and wants to release political prisoners after a change of government.
“We missed democracy a lot,” said Erdogan’s opponent on election day
10:52 a.m.: The Turkish presidential candidate and Erdogan’s most promising challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu has cast his vote in Turkey’s elections. Television images showed Kilicdaroglu at the ballot box in Ankara on Sunday. “We missed democracy a lot,” Kilicdaroglu said. “Spring” will hopefully come soon, said the 74-year-old, referring to a possible victory in the election.
German security authorities warn of clashes over Turkey elections
Sunday, May 14, 10:05 a.m.: The authorities in Germany are also busy with the elections in Turkey this Sunday. “The federal security authorities are closely monitoring developments in Germany in connection with the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, together with the security authorities of the federal states,” a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told the “Bild am Sonntag”.
“Spontaneous meetings” are to be expected on election day, the newspaper reported, citing information from security circles. Clashes between supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are also possible.
You can read more news about the Turkish elections on the next page.
