Turkish presidential election enters second round as candidates vie for votes.

By Elijah J. Magnier:

As Turkish expatriates in 73 countries worldwide cast their ballots and the run-off date for the Turkish presidential election approaches, the competition between the two rivals, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is intensifying. This election marks the first time in Turkish history that no presidential candidate has won in the first round. The race between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu is intensifying Turkey’s identity struggle, dividing the population between secularism and ‘Erdoganism’.

Both candidates are trying to win over new voters or those who did not vote in the first round. The power candidate, Erdogan, has a relatively more straightforward chance, as he needs less than one point to win if the electoral map remains unchanged. On the other hand, Kilicdaroglu, the opposition candidate, faces a complicated situation as Erdogan’s constant incitement and the weak defence of his allies and campaign have hampered his chances. Kilicdaroglu has adopted a more thoughtful and negative discourse to counter the accusation of “alliance with terrorism” that Erdogan has levelled at him, particularly about the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP). Relying on the nationalist candidate, Sinan Ogan, is not seen as a suitable strategy for Kilicdaroglu, as Ogan’s votes are mostly questionable, and Kilicdaroglu is looking for a third way between the Nationalist Movement and the Justice and Development Party. 

In the first round, Erdogan received 27,133,000 votes (49.52%), while Kilicdaroglu received 24,600,000 (44.88%), a difference of about two and a half million votes. Sinan Ogan received two million and 830 thousand votes (5.17%), while Muharram Ince, who withdrew a few days before the first round, received 235 thousand votes (0.43%). The number of people who abstained in the first round was 8,300,000. The number of spoilt votes was around one million, and the number of new voters in the second round was about 48,000.