Turkey is preparing for tomorrow’s crucial second round of elections in which its president will emerge, after the end of an election campaign, full of promises and curses against the Kurds and Syrian refugees from the two rivals.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the first round of voting with 49.5% and 27 million votes – 2.5 million more than his opponent. The coalition led by the AK Party also secured control of the Turkish parliament.
In the wake of the first round, in which Kemal Kilicdaroglu got 45%, the opposition leader turned to a more nationalistic policy, entering into an agreement with far-right politician and chairman of the Victory Party Umit Özdag and promising to expel millions of Syrian and Afghan refugees from Turkey.
But he failed to win the support of the main nationalist candidate Sinan Ogan, who came third with 5% of the vote and who instead backed Erdogan.
Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu have focused in recent days on undecideds, pushing for new large rallies – though not as impressive as those of the first round.
Kilicdaroglu, who seems not to have expected to lose in the first round, opted for tough rhetoric ahead of the runoffwith promises, among other things, to expel the Syrian refugees and not to turn the country into a “depot of immigrants”. With a dose of populism: televised matches from public television.
There was no shortage of last-minute rebuttals: Ton Friday, Kilicdaroglu complained that he was prevented from sending his staff SMS to reporters to inform about his television interview. “They are trying by all means to stay in power,” he said, calling on “all workers to vote for their rights” on Sunday.
Erdogan mobilized complaints about “terrorists working with the HDP” (the Kurdish party) and “LGBTQI”.
Regardless of the outcome, there is the parliamentary parliament, which is clearly in the hands of Erdogan, whose party it has 321 seats against the opposition alliance’s 213 who supports Kilicdaroglu. Erdoğan’s victory will be the smoothest scenario: a president who wields far-reaching powers has a fully controlled National Assembly by his side. An eventual victory for Kilicdaroglu will bring Turkey into the territory of a peculiar “cohabitation”.
Analysts are predicting a comfortable victory for Erdogan, with some even raising the percentage to 60%. A few hours remain to see if the analysts are right and if Recep Tayyip Erdogan will manage to win another five years in the presidential office of Turkey.
Source: News Beast
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