Turkey election: Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins election, Opposition wary
Updated
Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the Turkey's presidential election with an "absolute majority" of valid votes, the country's national electoral board says.
Key points:
- Figures show Mr Erdogan won 52.5 per cent of vote
- Opposition casts doubt on accuracy of results
- AK Party won 42 per cent in parliamentary contest
Speaking early on Monday, the head of the Supreme Election Council, Sadi Guven, said 97.7 per cent of votes had been counted.
Mr Guven said the remaining votes would not affect the outcome.
By securing more than 50 per cent of the vote, Mr Erdogan avoided a presidential runoff, which would have been held on July 8.
When the state broadcaster earlier released initial results showing Mr Erdogan on track to win, the main opposition party said it was too early to concede defeat.
"Our people have given us the job of carrying out the presidential and executive posts," Mr Erdogan said in a short national address, even as votes were still being counted.
"I hope nobody will try to cast a shadow on the results and harm democracy in order to hide their own failure."
Mr Erdogan, 64, the most popular but also the most divisive politician in modern Turkish history, later waved to cheering, flag-waving supporters from the top of a bus in Istanbul.
Sunday's vote ushers in a powerful new executive presidency long sought by Mr Erdogan and backed by a small majority of Turks in a 2017 referendum.
Critics say it will further erode democracy in the NATO member state and entrench one-man rule.
An unexpectedly strong showing by the AK Party's alliance partner, the nationalist MHP, could translate into the stable parliamentary majority Mr Erdogan seeks to govern freely.
"This sets the stage for speeding up reforms," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted of the results.
In early trading in Asia, the lira currency firmed modestly versus the dollar on hopes of increased political stability.
Despite doubts, opposition tally backs Anadolu figures
Mr Ince, of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), urged election monitors to remain at polling stations to help guard against possible election fraud, as final results came in from large cities where his party typically performs strongly.
Despite the main opposition leader Muharrem Ince's doubts over the accuracy of the results broadcast by the country's state news agency, an opposition platform collating its own vote tally from monitors based at polling stations around the country broadly confirmed the figures.
Opposition parties and NGOs had deployed up to half a million monitors at ballot boxes to ward off possible electoral fraud.
They said election law changes and fraud allegations in the 2017 referendum raised fears about the fairness of Sunday's elections.
Mr Erdogan said there had been no serious voting violations.
In Sunday's parliamentary contest, the Islamist-rooted AK Party won 42 per cent and its MHP ally 11 per cent, based on 99 per cent of votes counted, broadcasters said.
In the opposition camp, the CHP had 23 per cent and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) 11 per cent — above the threshold it needs to reach to enter parliament.
The opposition nationalist Iyi (Good) party received 10 per cent.
Election turnout nationwide was very high at around 87 per cent for both contests, the state broadcaster said.
Mr Erdogan argues that his new powers will better enable him to tackle the nation's economic problems — the lira has lost 20 per cent against the dollar this year — and crush Kurdish rebels in south-east Turkey and in neighbouring Iraq and Syria.
Reuters/AP
Topics: world-politics, government-and-politics, elections, turkey
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