The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, assured this Monday that he has a “clear advantage” in the presidential race and did not rule out the possibility of obtaining an absolute majority in the first round of the elections held on Sunday.
“Although the results are not yet clear, we lead the count with a clear advantage,” said the Turkish head of state, before a crowd of supporters gathered in Ankara at dawn (02:30 local time, 23:30 GMT and 00:00 :00). 30 of Lisbon), adding that thanks to the vote abroad he still has the possibility of obtaining the absolute majority that he has had since 2014 and that he renewed in 2018.
Despite this, he added that, if necessary, he is ready to run for a second round, stating: “We respect this ballot and we will respect the result of the next elections.”
“We don’t know if this will end in the first round or in the second round,” the Islamist Erdogan said in a speech to supporters in the Turkish capital.
The provisional result gives him, for the moment, only 49.4% of the votes, but he indicated that the ballots of Turkish citizens residing abroad, who usually support him in the majority, still have to be counted.
In Germany, where about half of the Turkish citizens abroad reside, Erdogan won 65% of the vote.
According to the partial count released by the official Anatolia news agency, the opposition candidate, the Social Democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has so far obtained 45% of the vote.
If none of the candidates manages to exceed 50% of the votes, a second round of presidential elections will be held on May 28.
It will be the first time in 20 years since he came to power in Turkey that Erdogan will be forced to run in a runoff against his Social Democratic opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, a candidate from an unprecedented six-party coalition.
“No matter the result, 27 million people chose to vote for us,” Erdogan insisted to supporters as the vote count continued.
“I think we are going to finish this election with more than 50% of the votes. The people opted for stability and security in these presidential elections,” he said.
Kiliçdaroglu denounced during election night that Erdogan’s party, the AKP (Justice and Development Party), “continually challenges the voting records and blocks the system” of tabulating results in regions where the opposition is strongest.
Several leaders of his party, the CHP (Republican People’s Party), assured that, when all the votes are counted, it will be Kiliçdaroglu who will lead the presidential race.
As for the legislative elections, also held on Sunday, Erdogan claimed victory by an absolute majority in the 600-seat parliament.
“In the legislative elections it is clear that the Popular Alliance won the majority. The parliamentary majority belongs to the Alliance,” added Erdogan, referring to the coalition formed by his party, the Islamist AKP, with the nationalist MHP and other minor formations. .
Source: TSF
