Kemal Kilicdaroglu, opponent of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he is ready for the runoff elections early Monday as the election results showed neither opponent crossing the 50% threshold.
“If our nation says second round, we will absolutely win in the second round. The will for change in society is higher than 50 percent,” Kilicdaroglu was quoted as saying by news agency AFP.
Neither Tayyip Erdogan nor Kemal Kilicdaroglu received enough votes to win outright in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, indicating a possible runoff. However, the president performed better than expected in the elections on Sunday.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, Erdogan has received 49.25% of the votes, while his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu secured 45.05%. There are reports of inconsistencies between the information provided by state media and the Supreme Election Council (YSK), according to the Guardian.
“Despite all of his lies and attacks, Erdoğan did not receive the desired outcome. No one should be enthusiastic about this being a done deal. The election is not won on the balcony,” Kilicdaroglu was quoted as saying by the Guardian.
The runoff elections will be held on May 28.
According to the Turkish electoral body, over 91% of the vote has been counted, but there have been significant delays in the counting of overseas ballots due to the increase in the number of overseas voters and parties running in this year’s election.
Turkey also held elections for parliament along with the presidential elections.
The preliminary results show that Erdogan’s People’s Alliance, consisting of the AKP and MHP, is likely to win a majority of seats, with 324 out of 600 seats.
The Nation Alliance, led by Kilicdaroglu’s CHP, is projected to secure 211 seats, while the pro-Kurdish Green Left party’s Labour and Freedom alliance is expected to win 65 seats. These results are based on 93% of votes counted so far.
Sinan Ogan, who received around 5% of the votes in the Turkish presidential election, has claimed that his candidacy affected the election outcome.
“I will speak to the leaders in my alliance, I will go and ask my voters in the coming couple of days. And then we will make a decision and perform our duty in the next 14 days,” Ogan was quoted as saying by the BBC.
Ogan whose exclusion from the presidential race is likely as Turkey heads towards a runoff polls means that his endorsement of one of the remaining candidates could have a significant impact on the outcome of Turkish presidential elections.