Türkiye'de Oy Sayılırken Erdoğan Önde

Sırt çizgisi

Election workers across Turkey are counting ballots in the runoff presidential election that will decide whether or not incumbent president Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintains his more than two-decade rule of the country.

Ana unsurlar

Following a general election on May 14 during which no candidate received a majority of the votes, Erdogan is currently ahead of challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the runoff election, according to multiple outlets, though the size of his lead is different depending upon the news agency.

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency showed Erdogan with 53% of the vote, compared to Kilicdaroglu’s 44%, with 82% of the ballots counted, in preliminary unofficial results as of noon EST Sunday.

ANKA news agency, a new organization close to the opposition, is reporting the results are even closer with 52% of the ballots counted, Kilicdaroglu has 51% of the votes and Erdogan has 52%, according to the Associated Press.

Turkey does not have exit polls and because of how the news agencies gather their data—it’s collected by personnel from completed ballot box counts spread out across the country—preliminary data often varies, the AP said.

Kilicdaroglu has promised to restore a more democratic society if elected, while Erdogan promised to continue to cut interest rates to fight against rising inflation.

Ne İzlenmeli?

A final result is likely to come later Sunday.

Anahtar Arka Plan

Erdogan has led the country for more than two decades. He was Turkey’s prime minister from 2003-2014 and then took over as the country’s president in 2014. A few years later, after a failed coup, Erdogan discarded the Prime Minister role altogether, strengthening his authoritarian grip on the country. Throughout his tenure, Erdogan has cracked down on the free press and dissidents. But Turkey has faced a catastrophic year, with worsening economic conditions and deadly natural disasters. The February earthquake—one of the deadliest on record, killing more than 50,000 people according to United Nations estimates— devastated the country and exacerbated its economic problems. Inflation has also crippled the nation’s economy for more than a year. Earlier this month, ahead of the first presidential election, inflation rates finally dipped below 50% for the first time in over a year, stabilizing prices for Turkey’s residents.

Büyük sayı

64 million. That’s how many registered voters there were in Turkey at the time of the initial presidential election earlier this month, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems. During the May 14 election, more than 55 million of those registered voters cast their ballots.

Daha fazla Okuma

Turkish Election Likely Heading Toward Runoff As Erdogan Slips Below Majority—Here’s All You Need To Know (Forbes)

Turkey’s Earthquake Becomes 8th Deadliest Since 1950: A Look At The 10 Deadliest And 10 Strongest Ones (Forbes)