The Turkish Presidential elections will go to a runoff on May 28, in which Recep Tayyip Erdogan, representing the People’s Alliance, will face off with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, representing the Nation Alliance and Republican People’s Party (CHP), since neither received the required majority of 50% plus one vote in the first round. The Anadolu Agency reported that Erdoğan received 49.51% and Kılıçdaroğlu 44.88% of the votes. The third candidate, Sinan Oğan, received 5.17% of the votes according to official sources, as reported by the Hurriyet Daily News. The turnout was an incredibly high 88.92%. Since Ogan has a similar electorate as Erdogan, it is more than likely that Erdogan will win.
Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Election Board, said: “According to the results, it has been observed that no presidential candidate could get enough votes to be elected as the President. Our board decided to go to the second round of polls on May 28 in line with the relevant laws.”
Turkiye has suffered from high inflation, and the London/Washington crowd had hoped for a defeat of Erdogan as part of their “hate anyone who talks with Putin” campaign. But even Kilicdaroglu, who expressed a more pro-Western approach on economics, wanting Turkiye to join the EU, also assured voters that he would not antagonize Russia. Assumedly, Erdogan will work with de-dollarization and Kilicdaroglu would work against it. British news agency Reuters, for one, describes Kilicdaroglu as more in sync with Western financial circles.
