Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu will stage a second round of presidential elections on May 28 after neither of them received more than 50 percent of the vote in Sunday’s polls, according to reports. confirmed by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK).
The body has detailed that Erdogan has collected 49.51 percent of the votes, while Kiliçdaroglu –backed by a coalition made up of six parties and supported by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has won the 44.89 percent of the ballots.
In third place has been the candidate of the Ancestral Alliance, Sinan Ogan, who has obtained 5.17 percent of the support, according to what the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia, has collected. The electoral commission has also highlighted that participation has been around 89 percent.
Erdogan, the Turkish politician who has led the country’s politics for the longest time – nearly 20 years between his tenure as prime minister and then as president – is seeking a third term amid opposition complaints about the unconstitutionality of the decision.
Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), aims to remove the president from power thanks to multi-party support and growing discontent over increased social repression and the economic crisis, deepened by high inflation. In addition, the February earthquakes, which left more than 50,000 dead, have damaged Erdogan’s image.
