Here is a guide to the second round of candidates and key questions:
presidential elections
The Turks elect a president who serves a 5-year term. In the first round of elections on May 14, Erdogan won 49.5% of the vote, just short of the majority needed to avoid a second round seen as a referendum on his power. Kılıçdaroğlu, candidate of a 6-party opposition alliance, received the support of 44.9% of voters. Nationalist candidate Sinan Ogan came third, with 5.2% of the votes to be eliminated. The results baffled the expectations of pollsters, who put Kilicdaroglu in the lead. A 2017 referendum narrowly approved Erdogan’s decision to expand the powers of the presidency, making the head of state the head of government and removing the post of prime minister. As the country’s president, Erdoğan determines policies related to the economy, security, and national and international affairs.
Candidates:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Erdogan hopes, more than 20 years after coming to power with the Justice and Development Party, to extend his reign as modern Turkey’s longest-serving leader.
According to Reuters, he defied his strong performance on May 14, when he successfully rallied conservative voters, hoping to end his rule.
A few days ago, Erdogan received support from nationalist candidate Sinan Ogan, which strengthened his position and increased the challenges Kilicdaroglu faces in the second round.
In the legislative elections also held on May 14, Erdogan’s AKP lost seven points from the 42.6% it won in the 2018 elections, but with his coalition enjoying a parliamentary majority, Erdogan lost called on voters to support him in order to ensure political stability.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu
He is the main opposition candidate and the leader of the Republican People’s Party, founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
He presented voters with a comprehensive program and promises to “improve the democratic system”, including a return to the parliamentary system to run the country and the independence of the judiciary.
But since May 14, he has begun to toughen up his rhetoric in a bid to convince nationalist voters to defeat Erdogan, promising to send millions of refugees back to their country.
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish parties on Thursday confirmed their continued support for Kilicdaroglu in the run-off without mentioning his name, a day after expressing anger over his deal with the right-wing Zafar party.
Umit Ozdag, the leader of the Zafar party, declared his support for Kilicdaroglu on Wednesday, which could give him a boost in the face of the impact of Ogan’s support for Erdogan. The Zafar party won the support of 2.2% of the electorate in the legislative elections.
Files in game?
Not only will the vote determine who will lead Turkey, a NATO member of some 85 million people, but also how it will be run, where its economy will go amid a worsening cost of living and its foreign policy. Erdogan’s critics say his government has targeted the opposition, curtailed rights and subjugated the justice system, which officials deny. Turkey’s economy is also in focus, and economists say it was Erdoğan’s unorthodox policy of cutting interest rates despite high prices that pushed inflation to 85% l year and caused the lira to fall to a tenth of its value against the dollar over the past decade. Kilicdaroglu pledged to return to the implementation of traditional economic policies and restore the independence of the Turkish Central Bank.
In terms of foreign affairs, Reuters reported that Turkey projected its military might in the Middle East and beyond under Erdogan’s rule, and forged closer ties with Russia, while relations with the European Union and the United States have become increasingly tense.
Turkey and the United Nations have also brokered a deal between Moscow and Kiev to resume Ukrainian grain exports, and Erdogan last week announced the latest two-month extension of the deal.
vote
More than 64 million Turks have the right to vote at nearly 192,000 polling stations, and that number includes more than six million who exercised the right for the first time on May 14. There are 3.4 million overseas voters who voted from May 20-24 this year. Polling stations open at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) on May 28. Voter turnout was generally high. On May 14, the overall turnout reached 87.04%, including 88.9% in Turkey and 49.4% abroad.
Results
According to the election rules, news, speculation and commentary on the vote are prohibited until 6 p.m. (1300 GMT), and the media are free to publish election results from 9 p.m. (1800 GMT) only.
However, the Supreme Election Council can and usually does allow the media to report results earlier.
The results are expected to be released next Sunday sooner than they appeared after the first-round vote, given the simplicity of the ballot papers in which voters will choose between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu.
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