The second round of presidential elections in Turkey has ended, and the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won the most votes, as in the first round. This means that he will once again be the president of Turkey.
The final precise results of the election will be known a little later, but according to all polls available to the Turkish public, Erdogan is leading convincingly and the race was not close.
He also gave a speech in which he thanked the voters and sent the message “Goodbye, Kemal” to his opponent. On that occasion, he declared victory.
“We finished the second round of the presidential election with the favor of our nation,” he said.
Erdogan’s supporters celebrate widely in the streets of Turkish cities.
He has been the head of Turkey since 2014, where he will remain in office for another five years after defeating his election opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Before becoming president, he was the prime minister of Turkey for more than 10 years, as well as the mayor of Istanbul for four years.
The Turkish leader’s rise to power was triggered by the controversial political consequences of the 1999 Izmit earthquake. When the devastating earthquake hit Turkey last year, many thought it would end Erdogan’s reign, just as it had started it, but Erdogan defiantly persisted.
The first round of Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 made him the favorite in a race that pollsters predicted could unseat him.
This week, third-place presidential candidate Sinan Ogan publicly endorsed Erdogan, further boosting Erdogan’s chances against Kilicdaroglu in a runoff.
The two rivals have shaped their campaigns as a series of contrasts. While Erdogan aimed to demonstrate his political strength and repeatedly praised Turkey’s fast-growing defense industry, Kilicdaroglu presented himself as a typical technocrat: soft, moderate and conciliatory.
Six right-wing and left-wing opposition groups united behind Kilicdaroglu in an unprecedented attempt to oust the incumbent president, but failed, Klix.ba reports.
