Erdogan’s insufficient victory predicts a tumultuous second round that will decide Türkiye’s future | international

Sunday’s elections failed to paint a clear picture of Turkey. With a tally of more than 90%, while a tense recount continues with mutual accusations of foul play, everything points to the fact that in two weeks the country will end up in a second round of presidential elections. If confirmed, a turbulent two weeks is expected. At stake is whether the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s strongman for 20 years, or the candidate who managed to unite the opposition, centre-left Kemal Kilicdaroglu, will continue to power. After 96% of the votes were counted, the independent ANKA agency gave Erdogan 49.1% of the vote, compared to 45.2% for his main rival. This is very similar data to that of the official Anadolu Agency, which gives 49.8% to the president, with a slightly smaller share of votes counted, – down significantly from the 60% it gave earlier in the night – compared to 44.5% of the vote. Kilicdaroglu.

Meanwhile, the third candidate, far-right representative Sinan Ogan, will receive 5.3 percent, which is a very appetizing number of votes for any of the presidential candidates. Ogan appeared in front of the media to make it clear that he would force a second-round vote and would only support a candidate who is committed to “expelling refugees” and “fighting terrorism” from both the PKK and Islamic groups.

The data provided by the agencies is not official, but is collected by the media itself through its correspondents and observers of political parties, who send them the records once they are closed. The head of the High Electoral Commission, Ahmet Yener, explained just before 11:00 pm (one hour less in mainland Spain) that at the moment, only half of the votes have been counted in this body’s system. This body will only provide official data when the vote has been fully counted.

The mayors of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, and Ankara Mansur Yavas, both of whom are candidates for the vice-presidential position should the opposition win, appeared several times during the night to criticize the data provided by Anadolu Agency, which they called “manipulative.” . They confirmed in their latest appearance that according to the data collected by the party, Kilicdaroglu will lead in the count with 48%-49% of the vote, three points ahead of Erdogan. “We are ahead in Istanbul and Ankara,” the mayor of the capital said in an appearance. Imamoglu also recalled how in the 2019 elections, Anadolu Agency began showing the pro-government candidate as the winner of the Istanbul municipal elections, with the progress of counting and his candidacy advancing in support, by cutting off data transmission to the media. For this reason, they have urged volunteers and party supporters not to leave polling stations until the last count is over.

Fayez Oztrak, a spokesman for the CHP, accused the main opposition formation, Anadolu Agency, which is publicly owned and the main source of information about electoral data for Turkish media, of “manipulation”. Given that the first results processed come from rural areas, more conservative and close to the president’s Islamist party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the first census data that appeared on Sunday afternoon on Turkish television gave Erdogan 60% support. . But this number decreases as the count progresses.

The opposition complained that the observers of Erdogan’s formation submitted objections to the ballot boxes in which Kilicdaroglu won, so that the minutes cannot be closed until these objections are resolved, and therefore the votes are not counted either. Well-known analyst Murat Yetkin, with good sources in the opposition, tweeted: “In large industrial and commercial cities, the results are hindered by objections and transportation obstacles.”

AKP spokesman Omer Celik also called for voting to be protected throughout election day and accused the opposition, whom he accused of making “shameful statements” and “attacking democracy”. Show up to present your winning candidate […] It is disrespectful to democracy and the will of the people,” he emphasized: “Our candidate is at the forefront with a great advantage and we have not gone out to announce anything. We’ll see the result in a few hours.”

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