In the presidential election in Turkey, incumbent Erdogan is ahead – but it will probably not be enough to win the first ballot. After counting almost all the votes, the electoral authorities saw him with just under 50 percent, his challenger Kilicdaroglu with just under 45 percent.
As expected, the race for the presidency in Turkey is extremely close. The electoral authority saw incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan after counting almost 92 percent of the votes with 49.5 percent of the votes. Opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, joint candidate of a six-party alliance, is therefore at 44.5 percent.
If it stays that way, neither of the two candidates would have the necessary absolute majority – Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu would have to go to a second ballot on May 28th.
Both candidates confident of victory
Erdogan declared to cheering supporters in Ankara that night that he was clearly ahead of his challenger. When it comes to the run-off election, he is ready: “We don’t know yet whether the election will be over in the first round, but if the people send us to a second round, we will respect that,” said Erdogan.
Kilicdaroglu also appeared in front of the press together with the party leaders of his six-party electoral alliance. “Despite his defamation and insults, Erdogan did not achieve the result he expected,” he said. The opposition will win and bring democracy to the country. Should the results of the first round necessitate a run-off, “we will absolutely win the second round,” said Kilicdaroglu. “The will to change in society is higher than 50 percent,” he added.
Kilicdaroğlu in primary polls in front
Erdogan’s good performance comes as a surprise, because in pre-election polls he was last behind Kilicdaroglu. Voter turnout in Turkey is traditionally high, with long queues forming in front of polling stations today. More than 64 million people were entitled to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections, including 1.5 million Turks living in Germany.
“From what we hear, at least in Germany, the turnout was higher than ever before,” said Kristian Brakel, head of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Istanbul tagesschau24. “And, as we know from the past, those German-Turks who go to the polls actually vote for the AKP in large numbers.”
allegations of tampering in internet videos
Around 192,000 ballot boxes were set up in Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of government and opposition observers were deployed. The head of the Turkish election commission YSK announced in the afternoon that the election had passed without any major incidents. The Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying: “The elections have gone off without any problems so far.”
However, allegations of manipulation have been raised in Internet videos: It shows, for example, how someone appears to stamp the election stamp on President Erdogan of the AKP – in Turkey ballot papers are stamped and not filled out by hand. Another video shows someone marking Erdogan’s AKP on several ballot papers. Election observers from the CHP are said to have lodged an objection with the Turkish electoral authorities.
“The President uses his position of power”
The pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP also confirmed a media report to the dpa news agency, 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.
According to Brakel, such incidents have already occurred in past elections – especially in the south-east of the country. However, most people are generally able to cast their votes “relatively freely” on election day. The election campaign, on the other hand, was unfair: “Of course, the president is given a lot more time in most of the government-controlled media. He uses his position of power and the funds available to him to make election gifts,” said Brakel tagesschau24.
Erdogan has more power than ever
Since the introduction of a presidential system five years ago, the 69-year-old AKP politician Erdogan has never had more power and can largely rule without parliament. Critics fear that the country, with a population of around 85 million, could slide completely into autocracy if he wins again. The vote in the NATO country is also being closely observed internationally.
Challenger Kilicdaroglu is considered a level-headed politician. He comes from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli and belongs to the Alevi religious minority. The opposition leader wants to restore the independence of institutions like the central bank and get high inflation under control. He stands for a rapprochement with Germany and the EU, but also for a stricter migration policy.