Turks are electing a president, according to polls, opposition leader Kiliçdaroglu will defeat Erdogan

Update: 14.05.2023 01:31

Ankara – Presidential and parliamentary elections are being held in Turkey today, which could end the 20-year rule of authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to polls, long-time opposition leader Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, who is supported by all major opposition parties, could defeat him already in today’s first round. If no one gets over 50 percent of the vote, a second round of presidential elections will take place on May 28.

Polling stations will open at 8:00 a.m. local time (7:00 a.m. CEST) and close at 4:00 p.m. CEST. The first results are expected about four hours later.

Erdogan, now 69, has been prime minister since 2003 and president since 2014. In the previous elections in 2018, he already won in the first round, but then there was not a single strong opposition leader standing against him.

Seventy-four-year-old Kiliçdaroglu is the candidate of a six-party bloc called the National Alliance, which also includes his People’s Republican Party (CHP), now the second largest parliamentary formation. But it also has support from the second largest opposition parliamentary party, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).

Human rights activists are also hoping for Kiliçdaroglu’s victory, because under Erdogan’s regime, journalists, opposition politicians and inconvenient civil servants ended up in prison just for criticizing the government. Dozens of independent newspapers and publishing houses were also closed.