In a widely watched runoff election, Recep Tayyip Erdogan easily defeated his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu to win a third term as president of Turkey.
The president of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) welcomed a gathering of supporters in Istanbul after early results showed that Erdogan had 52 percent of the vote against Kilicdaroglu’s 48.
Erdogan declared, “The winner of this election is all the 85 million-strong Turkish nation,” adding that he has been granted the authority to reign for the following five years.
“We concluded the runoff elections successfully. My country is grateful.
Following his defeat, Kilicdaroglu made the following statement on television: “This election clearly indicated that the nation has a real will to fight and change the autocratic government.”
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader said: “I will continue my path” despite the uncertainty surrounding the 74-year-old’s future.
Congratulatory messages from Erdogan’s allies on the world stage poured in as a sizable crowd gathered outside Ankara’s presidential complex.
The first to speak was Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the emir of Qatar, who congratulated “my dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”.
Vladimir Putin of Russia, Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi, the president of Egypt who until recently was a major adversary in the region, were among those who came after them.
The Turkish lira decreased to 20.05 to the US dollar once Erdogan’s victory was officially declared. Markets are unconvinced by Erdogan’s anti-interest rate dogma, which has fueled inflation, and Turkey is grappling with a severe cost of living crisis.
A smooth victory
Preeminent Political race Board director Ahmet Yener said the vote went on without a hitch. The authority Anadolu Organization put turnout at 84%, only several rates focus underneath the principal round on 14 May.
Felines, a sheep, a lady and a 113-year-elderly person purportedly brought into the world in the Ottoman time added variety to surveying stations over the course of the day.
Voters in Istanbul’s Maltepe district, a stronghold for the CHP, were split.
“Obviously, we returned again to decide in favor of Kilicdaroglu, despite the fact that triumph appears to be progressively troublesome,” Ali, a 22-year-old college understudy, told Center East Eye.
“At the very least, we want to demonstrate to Erdogan that almost half of the country opposes his autocratic rule,” the statement reads.
Betul Yilmaz, on the other hand, a supporter of Erdogan, seemed excited about the possibility of the president winning another election.
She stated to reporters, “We need Erdogan to fight terrorism, improve our country, and increase the production of local goods.”
It was never meant to end this way for Kilicdaroglu.
In front of the 14 May official and parliamentary races, a few regarded surveyors made them win by and large in a first round.
The pro-Kuridsh HDP had endorsed Kilicdaroglu’s creation of the Table of Six, an electoral alliance made up of his center-left CHP and five right-wing parties.
It demonstrated sufficiently not, with Erdogan raging to a 49.5 percent triumph in the main cycle, five focuses clear of Kilicdaroglu yet neglecting to clear the 50% limit for a through and through success, provoking Sunday’s overflow. In the meantime, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of the president and its allies gained a majority in parliament.
