While the counting continues, neither of the two candidates would exceed the threshold of 50% of the votes needed to win in the first round.
A new appointment on May 28. A second round of the presidential election should take place in Turkey while incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power for two decades, was credited with a score in the first round higher than expected but insufficient to win on Sunday evening against his rival.
After counting nearly 97% of the ballots, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was credited with 49.39% of the vote, against 44.92% for Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the sole candidate of six opposition movements, according to preliminary results reported by the official Anatolia news agency.
The national electoral commission already placed the outgoing president in the lead with 49.49% of the votes after the counting of 91.93% of the ballots.
call for patience
Neither of the two candidates would therefore exceed the threshold of 50% of the votes necessary to win in the first round an election considered as a verdict for the increasingly authoritarian reign of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, aged 69.
As Recep Tayyip Erdogan told cheering supporters gathered at his party headquarters that he was well ahead in the first round, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu expressed confidence in a second-round victory and urged his supporters to be patient .
This election is decisive to know not only who will lead Turkey, a member of NATO, but also what will be the political and economic orientation of this regional power of 85 million inhabitants, particularly in its relations with Russia, the Middle -East and West.
The presidential election is being held alongside legislative elections in a context of serious economic crisis and after the trauma caused by the double earthquake in February, which hit southern Turkey and killed more than 50,000 people, according to official figures.
