Turkey officially held a second presidential round on May 28, based on a partial recount of the votes, which give the current head of State and Government, the Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a great advantage over his main contender, the Social Democrat. Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Electoral Commission affirms, after the scrutiny of about 91% of the ballot boxes opened yesterday, Sunday, in the general elections of Turkey, no candidate will be able to exceed 50% of the ballots.
Based on this provisional result, without knowing the votes abroad, the nearly 65 citizens with the right to vote must return to the polls in two weeks to elect their new president.
Erdogan would start with an advantage of more than 4 points, obtaining 49.5%, compared to Kiliçdaroglu, who obtained close to 44.8%. On the other hand, Sinan Ogan, from the ultranationalist Ata Alliance, was in a distant third place, with around 5.3%, so he would be out of the game.
Likewise, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) will remain first in the parliamentary elections also held on Sunday, although with 35% remaining with the worst result since it came to power in 2002. However, it will probably continue to dominate the chamber on electoral alliance formed with other parties, mainly the ultranationalist MHP and the fundamentalist Yeniden Refah, with whom it maintains the absolute majority of deputies.
The good results of the MHP, slightly above 10%, are somewhat of a surprise, since the polls gave it several points less.
Yeniden Refah doesn’t reach 3% in the national territory, but its good results in several provinces in southeastern Anatolia allow it to send five deputies to the chamber.
Although the AKP will not have the 285 deputies, since it has a total of 268, it is expected that the alliance will have 324 of the 600 it had, thus maintaining a good seat.
The social democratic party CHP, for its part, will rise from 134 to 167 seats. With the 44 that its coalition partner, the nationalist IYI, will add, it will remain in the opposition, even if it receives the support of the Kurdish left, which will continue to be the third party in the hemicycle, with 62 seats.
Published by The Tampa Herald, news and information agency.
