The official results of the presidential election in Turkey are here. There will be a second round

The presidential election was run by the current Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the opposition-supported leader of the Republican People’s Party Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the nationalist Sinan Ognan. On Monday afternoon, the electoral commission announced that after counting all the votes, the incumbent president received 49.5 percent, while Kilicdaroglu won 44.8 percent. As Anatolia reported earlier, Ognan’s result was about 5 percent.

Presidential elections in Turkey. Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu will face off in the second round

The lack of resolution of the elections in the first round is in line with the experts’ predictions. Pre-election polls showed similar results for both main candidates. In the first partial results, Kilicadroglu was clearly in the lead, but the difference narrowed as the votes were counted. 61 million people were eligible to vote. The turnout in Sunday’s voting was 88 percent. The second round of voting will take place on May 28.

“Elections of the Century”. The Turkish opposition finally has a chance

The elections in Turkey are referred to as the “elections of the century”. For the first time in two decades, the opposition has a chance to remove President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power. On Sunday, opposition representatives claimed that there were irregularities in the counting of votes, but both the Turkish president’s entourage, the ruling party and the election commission strongly deny this. Thousands of supporters of the president gathered in front of the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara in the evening. Supporters of Kilicdaroglu also gathered in the streets of Turkish cities.

One of the most important issues raised in the election campaign was the decline in living standards in Turkey. According to official data, in October last year, inflation amounted to 85.5 percent. – the most in 24 years. In addition, many Turks are still struggling with the tragic earthquakes that hit the country in February this year. Erdogan’s government has been repeatedly criticized for reacting too late. The president himself apologized for it. According to a report by scientists from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, the higher number of victims of the earthquake in February 2023 (50,000 people died) was supposed to be caused by corruption and negligence, which led to violations of construction and safety regulations by developers. “If the earthquake hadn’t happened, Erdogan would probably have been leading in the polls,” the report concluded.