Ankara: Preliminary, unofficial results from Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency showed incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ahead with 49 per cent of ballot boxes counted, while a competing news agency gave a slight lead to the opposition candidate.
Anadolu showed Erdogan at 56%, and his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, at 44%.
Meanwhile, the ANKA news agency, close to the opposition, showed the results at 51 per cent for Kilicdaroglu and Erdogan at 49 per cent, with 52 per cent of ballot boxes counted.
The news agencies get their data from completed ballot box counts that are gathered by personnel on the field, and are strong in different regions, explaining some of the variation in preliminary data.
Anadolu’s numbers were disputed in the May 14 first round election by opposition politicians, who said the news agency was biased in favour of Erdogan.
Anadolu rejected the accusation and the final results did not reveal a discrepancy. Erdogan came out more than 4 per cent ahead of Kilicdaroglu, but just short of outright victory, leading to the second round on Sunday.
Turkey’s electoral board sends its own data to political parties throughout the vote count but doesn’t declare official results until days later.
The final decision could have implications far beyond Ankara. Turkey stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and it plays a key role in NATO.
Erdogan’s government vetoed Sweden’s bid to join NATO and purchased Russian missile-defence systems, which prompted the United States to oust Turkiye from a U.S.-led fighter-jet project.
But it also helped broker a crucial deal that allowed Ukrainian grain shipments and averted a global food crisis.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been at Turkey helm for 20 years, was favoured to win a new five-year term in the second-round runoff, after coming just short of outright victory in the first round on May 14.
The divisive populist finished four percentage points ahead of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party alliance and leader of Turkey’s centre-left main opposition party.
Erdogan’s performance came despite crippling inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake three months ago. It was the first time he didn’t win an election where he ran as a candidate.
The two candidates offered sharply different visions of the country’s future, and its recent past.
“This election took place under very difficult circumstances, there was all sorts of slander and defamation,” the 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu told reporters after casting his ballot.
“But I trust in the common sense of the people. Democracy will come, freedom will come, people will be able to wander the streets and freely criticize politicians.”
Speaking to reporters after casting his vote at a school in Istanbul, Erdogan noted that it’s the first presidential runoff election in Turkey’s history.