Turkish Presidential Election Likely Headed For Runoff

Bloomberg reports:

Turkey is set to head to a runoff in a vote that’s become the strongest electoral test yet of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two decades in power.

While preliminary results Monday showed Erdogan with a lead of more than 2 million votes, it wasn’t enough to secure the more than 50% of the ballot and avoid a second round. Another vote on May 28 will pit him against top rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, who’s backed by Turkey’s broadest-ever grouping of opposition parties.

Millions of ballots were still being counted Monday and there’s still a small chance 69-year-old Erdogan could declare a first round victory, but a runoff is generally seen as the most likely outcome now that 99% of ballot boxes have been opened.

Read the full article.

Early results on Monday showed Erdogan winning 49.3% of the votes, while Kilicdaroglu secured 45% support, short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff https://t.co/ae4ZvcV7YV pic.twitter.com/k1vd0oL3OM

— Bloomberg (@business) May 15, 2023