In the presidential elections in Turkey, a head-to-head race is emerging between incumbent Erdoğan and opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. First results show Erdoğan ahead. However, the state news agency usually first publishes the count results in Erdoğan strongholds. These data therefore do not yet allow any conclusions to be drawn about the final result.
After counting more than 25 percent of the votes, Erdoğan got around 54 percent, as the state news agency Anadolu reported on Sunday evening. Opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was in second place with around 40 percent.
A few hours after the polling stations closed, Kılıçdaroğlu was clearly optimistic. “We’re ahead,” tweeted the 74-year-old. He did not say what data he was referring to. The spokesman for Kılıçdaroğlu’s CHP party, Faik Öztrak, also said the initial data they received was “extremely positive” for the opposition. He accused Anadolu of “manipulation”.
64 million Turks were called to vote
The polling stations closed at 4 p.m. CEST (5 p.m. local time). Around 64 million people in Germany and abroad who were eligible to vote were called upon to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections. In Germany, around 1.5 million people with a Turkish passport were entitled to vote. Around 192,000 ballot boxes were set up in Turkey.
Hundreds of thousands of government and opposition observers are deployed. The first reliable results are expected later in the evening. According to the electoral authorities, the election of parliament and the president went off without major problems, although incidents were reported at several polling stations.
The pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP of the German Press Agency confirmed a media report according to which election observers from the sister party YSP were attacked in the south-eastern Turkish city of Mardin. The dispute broke out after observers denied more than one family member access to the polling booth.
A CHP deputy also shared a video showing rows of ballot papers being stamped for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Şanlıurfa in southeastern Turkey. However, it could not be verified when and where the recordings were made, or whether the ballot papers were real.
Erdoğan follows count in Ankara
Erdoğan surprised early Sunday afternoon by traveling to Ankara, contrary to expectations, after the vote was cast in Istanbul. At noon he said he would follow the results from Istanbul.
If none of the candidates gets more than 50 percent of the votes, the two strongest candidates will go to a runoff in two weeks. According to polls, only a low single-digit result is predicted for the candidate of an ultra-nationalist party alliance, Sinan Ogan.