Turkish voters are voting in a crucial presidential ballot that could end the rule of outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after twenty years in power. Opinion polls show Erdogan’s main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who heads an alliance of six opposition parties, with a slight lead. However, if either of them fails to obtain more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off will take place on May 28.
Voting centers opened their doors at eight in the morning, and closed at five in the evening, and voters lined up in long lines that formed before the doors of polling centers opened at eight in the morning in Istanbul and Ankara.
When casting his vote, Erdoğan expressed his hope that the election result would be “good for the country’s future.” Kilicdaroglu also stated that Turkey had “longed for democracy.”
Under Turkish election law, no results can be announced until 9 p.m., but by late Sunday there could be a good indication of whether a presidential run-off will take place.
The vote will decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO member of 85 million people, but also the way it is governed, where the country’s economy is headed amid a deepening cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy that has taken unexpected turns.
Voters will also choose a new parliament, and there will likely be a close race between the People’s Alliance consisting of Erdoğan’s Islamist-conservative Justice and Development Party, the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party and others, and Kilicdaroglu’s Nation Alliance of six opposition parties, including Republican People’s Party founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.
Erdogan Is it the end of the era?
Erdogan, 69, is a powerful orator who commands a strong loyalty from pious Turks who at one point felt disenfranchised in secular Turkey. His political life has survived a coup attempt in 2016 and several corruption scandals. However, if the Turks overthrow him, it will be largely because they have seen their prosperity, equality and ability to meet basic needs deteriorate with an inflation rate exceeding 85 percent in October along with the collapse of the lira.
As for Kilicdaroglu, 74, he is a former civil servant who seeks to return the country to a parliamentary system of government, from the executive presidential system of Erdogan that was passed in a referendum in 2017. He also promised to restore the independence of the judiciary, which critics say Erdogan used to suppress dissent.
If Kilicdaroglu wins, he will face challenges in maintaining a unified opposition coalition that includes nationalists, Islamists, secularists and liberals.
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