In the Turkish elections, none of the candidates won more than 50%, a second round will take place

A second round of presidential elections will take place in Turkey, as none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the vote on Sunday. The Supreme Electoral Office announced this today. According to official results, current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the first round with 49.5 percent of the vote, while opposition candidate Kemal Kiliçdaroglu received 44.9 percent of the vote. The third candidate, Sinan Ogan, who did not advance to the second round, received 5.2 percent of the vote. The Turks will return to the polls on Sunday, May 28.

The head of the electoral office, Ahmet Yener, said that there are still a few precincts from abroad to be counted. Even if Erdogan got all these votes, he would not get the majority of the votes. Even in such a highly unlikely event, a second round would have to take place. The office will publish the complete and official results on Friday.

After voting ended on Sunday afternoon, SELČ opposition leaders claimed that their candidate Kiliçdaroglu would win the first round according to their data. Erdogan started well above 50 percent in the vote count, but over time his support has fallen below that mark. Voter turnout reached 89 percent in Turkey and 53 percent abroad, Anadolu Agency reported.

After the second round was announced, Kiliçdaroglu posted a video urging his supporters not to let up. “I will fight until the end,” said the opposition candidate. Erdogan did not comment on the election authority’s announcement, having previously said he was ready to go to the second round. A third candidate, Sinan Ogan, who remained outside his gates, said he would announce what he would do in the second round after consulting with his constituents. According to experts, the candidate who received almost three million votes on Sunday could significantly influence the election of the president. He told the media that he was willing to negotiate with both candidates and that he had several priorities that he did not want to compromise. These include, for example, the fight against Kurdish radical groups and the return of refugees to Syria.

According to data from Turkish agencies, Erdogan’s bloc of parties won Sunday’s election, gaining over 49 percent of the vote and will have a majority in parliament. The second was a bloc of parties that proposed for president Kiliçdaroglu. He received roughly 35 percent of the vote. An alliance of pro-Kurdish parties will also enter parliament with a gain of around ten percent.

According to international observers, Erdogan and his camp had an “unjustifiable advantage” in the elections, mainly in access to the media. This was stated today by international observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe. In addition, government officials restrict the work of independent media through, for example, defamation lawsuits or police interventions. Observers have also criticized electoral authorities’ lack of transparency in vote counting and lack of robust measures to make it easier for people affected by the devastating earthquake in early February to vote. At the same time, observers believe that the elections were well organized and passed without major incidents. In their framework, a real competition between political entities took place.

The second round of presidential elections will take place in Turkey for the first time since a constitutional amendment in 2017 introduced direct election of the head of state.