Turkey’s voters will even have to choose their president and parliament in a second round. Neither President Tayyip Erdogan nor his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu managed to secure more than 50% of the vote to secure victory without new elections now scheduled for May 28.
Tayyip Erdogan has been leading Turkey for more than 20 years, and in this election the country decides whether it wants to follow a democratic course, Reuters reported.
After counting 97% of the votes, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu assured his supporters that he would win in the second round. He also accused Tayyip Erdogan’s party of interfering in the counting and publication of the results.
The Turkish President also believes in victory. “We are ahead of our closest rival with over 2.6 million votes. We hope that this number will increase with the official results,” he stressed.
With 97% of the vote counted, Erdogan leads with 49.39% and Kilicdaroglu with 44.92%, according to the state news agency Anadolu.
The third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.3% of the vote, and it is important to know which candidate he will support.
Erdogan is considered one of Putin’s most important allies. His main rival has promised to restore democracy and reestablish ties with the West, as well as to release thousands of activists and opponents of Erdogan.