Turkish state media has reported that current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading in the counting of votes. According to the opposition, the situation is opposite.
14.5. 22:16
Counting of votes for Sunday’s presidential election continues in Turkey. According to Reuters, after 21:00 Finnish time more than two-thirds of the votes had been counted.
At the time, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was leading with 51.23 percent of the vote, according to the TRT channel. The main candidate of the opposition, Kemal Kılıkdaroğlu, who came second, got 42.95 percent of the votes.
Earlier, state news agency Anadolu reported that after nearly 60 percent of votes were counted, Erdogan was leading with 51.84 percent. According to Anadolu, Kilicdaroglu had 42.53 percent of the vote at the time.
However, according to Reuters, Kilicdaroglu said in the evening that he was in charge, despite state media reporting otherwise.
– We are ahead, Kilikdaroglu tweeted shortly before 20:00 Finnish time.
Sources in both camps told Reuters that based on preliminary results, a second round of the election is likely, which is set for May 28. A second round occurs when none of the main candidates receives more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round.
According to experts, as the counting of votes progresses, the gap between the candidates will narrow, as it has been customary to announce results earlier in areas with strong support for Erdogan than in larger cities.
Supporters of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan await election results at the headquarters of his AKP party in Istanbul. Photo: Ozan Kos/AFP/Lahtikuva
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In his tweet, Erdogan criticized the early announcement of the voting results.
Erdoğan wrote, even though the elections were held in such a positive and democratic atmosphere and the counting of votes is still underway, hurrying to announce the results means usurping the will of the people.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who represents the opposition, went on a local TV channel to criticize Anadolu, which has been accused of manipulating results in previous elections in favor of Erdogan. According to Imamoglu, one should not pay attention to the preliminary results published by the news agency.
– We can say this simply: Mr. Kilicdaroglu will be declared the 13th president of our country today, Imamoglu said at a press conference, according to Reuters.
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, who is also in the opposition, said earlier on Sunday that Kilikdaroglu’s key vote count was one percentage point higher than Erdogan’s.
Kilicdaroglu insisted that all votes should be included in the count.
– We can’t sleep tonight, he tweeted.
