The President of Turkey, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, would have won the presidential elections this Sunday, but without the absolute majority necessary to avoid a second round in two weeks against the opposition candidate, the Social Democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, when 90% have been counted from the polls and according to local media.
The official Anadolu agency gives Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades, 49.9% of the votes, very similar to that granted by ANKA, a private media outlet, while the candidate has between 44 and 45%. A third candidate, the nationalist Sinan Ogan, would achieve 5% of the ballots.
The elections would not have taken place without controversy. Kiliçdaroglu’s party, the CHP, has accused Anadolu of not giving reliable data during the count and the AKP of having been blocking the counting of the ballots, challenging the tally sheets in areas where the opposition is stronger. In this sense, the candidate himself asked his auditors and the volunteers who participate in the count “not to abandon their posts” to ensure that the count is done correctly.
The mayor of Ankara, the social democrat Mansur Yavas, will have assured that when the total count of the big cities is included, the opposition candidate will have an absolute majority to win the presidential elections already in this first round. Erdogan criticized the CHP for disclosing the results before the official announcement of the count, and also asked his table delegates not to abandon the count.
“While the elections were held in such a positive and democratic environment and the vote count is still ongoing, attempting to announce the results with significant haste would usurp the national will,” the president said.
In the parliamentary elections, which were also held on Sunday, the alliance formed around the AKP, Erdogan’s Islamist party, has 50% of the votes and 325 of the 600 deputies in Parliament, which would maintain the absolute majority it has. for 20 years. The CHP and its allies would obtain 34% and 215 deputies, and the leftist and pro-Kurdish party HDP and its allies would obtain 60, when 82% of the polls have already been opened.
