He seemed to have suffered irreparable political damage, heading for heavy defeatafter twenty years in power; but the president of Turkey he seems to have come out stronger from Sunday’s test election, to start the race ahead of the second round of the presidential election on May 28 from a position of strength.
THE Recep Tayyip Erdogan he received 49.5% of the vote, compared to 45% of his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Thus, the Turkish National Electoral Commission confirmed yesterday afternoon that the presidency will be decided in the second round.
Mr Erdogan, who has earned the nickname “Sultan”, saw his faction’s majority in the Turkish parliament remain intact.
The outcome of the second round is announced as uncertain for the opposition, which is shaking its faith in victory, writes the Agence France-Presse and relays the Athens News Agency.
It will partly depend on the third-placed candidate, far-right nationalist Sinan Ogan, who secured 5.2% of the vote in the first round and has yet to say who he will support in the second round.
The impact of the economic crisis experienced by Turkey and the devastating February 6 earthquake, which left at least 50,000 dead, was not what analysts and pollsters were discounting.
The government’s response, described as belated and inadequate, angered many earthquake victims. But that did not translate to the polls: voters in the hardest-hit provinces again showed their confidence in the president, who promised to build 650,000 in the affected areas as soon as possible.
“The nation shows its confidence in Erdogan,” was the front page of the (pro-government) Sabah newspaper, which called it a “tremendous success” for the head of state to take first place.
“Respect”
Until the day before Sunday, the opposition, a motley alliance of six factions under the Republican People’s Party (CHP, social democratic, founded by Mustafa Kemal, the founder of modern Turkey) said its aim was to “finish” Mr Erdogan “in the first round”. .
Yesterday afternoon, the vice-president of the party acknowledged that the “about 300 ballot boxes from abroad” the ballots in which remained to be counted “will not change the facts”, assuring however that “we will definitely win in the second round”.
Although the opposition contested the results announced on Sunday night, the observers of the Council of Europe and the OSCE judged that the elections they offered a real choice to the Turks.
And this despite the “unjustified advantage” that the state media gave to the head of state.
The two candidates assure that they are willing to face off again in a debate and that they will show “respect” to the verdict of the ballot box.
Faced with a second round for the first time since he was re-elected in 2018, Mr Erdogan is bursting with confidence.
“I sincerely believe that we will continue to serve our people in the next five years,” he told a sea of ​​cheering supporters on Sunday night in Ankara.
“True Leader”
The American president Joe Biden will “happily cooperate with the winner [των εκλογών]whoever it is,” John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said yesterday.
For Bayram Balci, a researcher at CERI-Sciences Po in Paris, former director of the French Anatolian Research Institute in Istanbul, the Turks probably chose “stability and security”.
“They refused to put their trust in a motley coalition with diverging interests, wondering how it could govern as one,” he added.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan “will win. He is a true leader, Turks trust him, he has a vision for Turkey,” predicted Hamdi Kurunmahmut, an Istanbul resident who works in tourism, yesterday.
The main index of the Istanbul Stock Exchange plunged yesterday and the Turkish lira fell to a record low against the US dollar (19.7:1).
“The outcome of the elections will be decisive for the Turkish economy,” warned analyst Bartos Savitsky, for whom the question is whether Turkey will continue to pursue “heterodox” economic policy, make “unbalanced” choices, or will “regain the path of reforms and recovery”.
Source: News Beast
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