On Sunday, tens of millions of Turkish citizens cast their ballots in the presidential and legislative elections. The current vote count is as follows:
A runoff election will be held between President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and his primary opponent, Kemal Klçdarolu, after Erdoan exceeded expectations but fell short of the required 50% vote total to win the election outright.
With a tiny percentage of abroad ballots still to be counted, the president won with 49.51% against Klçdarolu’s 44.88%.
No candidate would obtain the majority required to win the elections outright, according to the head of the supreme electoral board, even after the distribution of the remaining 35,874 abroad votes that have not been counted. The runoff will occur on May 28.
With 5.17% of the vote, a nationalist third candidate named Sinan Oan became a potential game-changer.
A record-high 88.9% of eligible voters participated.
Don’t give up, Klçdarolu urged his followers on Twitter. “We’ll take this election together and stand up.”
Through a coalition with ultra-nationalists, Erdoan’s right-wing party managed to maintain its hold on the majority in parliament.
The dollar/lira exchange rate hit fresh lows, and stocks on the Istanbul bourse declined as investors realised that the era of Erdoan’s unconventional economics might not be finished just yet.
