Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads the way in the country’s most important elections in decades. The first unofficial results published by the state agency Anadolu Agency they place the president above 50% with 25% scrutinized. In the past, the state agency has been accused of favoring Erdogan. For his part, Anka news agency it gives Erdogan 50% of the votes compared to 44% for his rival with 10% counted.
In these historic elections, a coalition of six opposition parties from very different political traditions have come together to present a single candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. In addition, although the pro-Kurdish formation Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – the third largest force in Parliament – has not joined the opposition coalition, it has not presented a candidate for the presidency and has asked for a vote for Kılıçdaroğlu, who has been leading for 13 years the CHP (Republican People’s Party), the main opposition party and the formation created by the founder of the homeland, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
If none of the candidates reaches 50% in the presidential elections, a second round will be held on May 28 between the two most voted. In parallel, parliamentary elections are held. The Grand National Assembly is made up of 600 deputies and Erdogan’s AKP currently controls 286, but his alliance with the ultranationalist MHP formation allows him to advance his legislative agenda. Until 2015 he had governed without interruption with an absolute majority, but in recent years he has experienced a clear loss of support. The Economist rates the quote as the most important elections of 2023 around the world.
