Voter support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dipped below the majority required for him to win reelection outright with the ballot count from Turkiye's national election nearly completed Sunday, making it more likely the country was headed toward a May 28 presidential runoff.
With almost 95% of ballot boxes counted, unofficial returns had Erdogan with 49.6% of the vote, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. His main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, had 44.7% as the gap between the two shrank as the night went on.
The race, which largely centered on domestic issues such as the economy, civil rights and a February earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people, had appeared to be shaping up as the toughest re-election bid of the Turkish leader’s 20-year rule. Voters also elected lawmakers to fill Turkiye’s 600-seat parliament, which lost much of its legislative power after a referendum to change the country's system of governance to an executive presidency narrowly passed in 2017.
Internationally, the elections were seen as a test of a united opposition’s ability to dislodge a leader who has concentrated nearly all state powers in his hands and worked to wield more influence on the world stage. In contrast with mainstream economic thinking, Erdogan contends that high interest rates fuel inflation, and he pressured the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkiye to lower its main rate multiple times.
Kilicdaroglu’s Nation Alliance pledged to return Turkiye’s governance system to a parliamentary democracy if it won both the presidential and parliamentary ballots. It also promised to restore the independence of the judiciary and the central bank, and to reverse crackdowns on free speech and other forms of democratic backsliding in Turkiye.
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