Preliminary results showed, after counting 96% of the votes, that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 49.44% of the vote in the presidential elections, while his main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, won 44.86%. Candidate Sinan Ogan got 5.29%. The participation rate in the elections, according to preliminary data, was 88.75%.
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The polling stations closed at five o’clock in the evening local time, and the counting of votes began immediately after that, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, monitored the progress of the process from the capital, Ankara.
These elections are among the most important in Turkey’s 100-year modern history.
The polling stations opened their doors to Turkish citizens at 8 am local time.
Turks cast their votes in more than 191,000 ballot boxes in 81 states in order to elect a new president for the country for a period of 5 years, and to choose the 600 members of parliament.
The number of those eligible to vote is 60 million 697 thousand 843 voters, of whom 4 million 904 thousand 672 voters will vote for the first time.
The Turkish President, the candidate of the “Public” Alliance, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to win a second and final term after the country’s transition to the presidential system, the candidate of the “People’s” Alliance and the leader of the Republican People’s Party, Kamal Kilicdaroglu, and the candidate of the Grandfathers’ Alliance, Sinan Ogan, are competing for the presidency.
On Thursday, the candidate of the Country Party, Muharram Ince, decided to withdraw from the presidential race, while 24 political parties are competing for parliamentary seats. The Supreme Elections Authority stated that the votes obtained by Inge will be counted as valid votes in the first round.
Twenty-four political parties and 151 independent candidates are running in the general election race. While some political parties entered the elections in five different alliances, namely, the “Audience” coalition, the “People’s” coalition, the “ancestors” coalition, the “Work and Freedom” coalition, and the “Union of Socialist Forces”.
The Turkish Supreme Electoral Commission took various measures in the 11 states affected by the February 6, 2023 earthquake, to conduct the elections properly in prefabricated centers designated for that, according to Anadolu Agency.
The presidential and parliamentary elections will decide who leads Turkey, a NATO member with a population of 85 million, as well as how it is governed in the coming years and the direction of the economy.