2023-05-28 01:02:39
Turks are voting in the run-off of the presidential elections, which may witness the extension of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule for a third decade as the ruler of power in Turkey.
Erdogan, 69, defied opinion polls and achieved a comfortable lead of nearly five points over his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in the first round on May 14. But he failed to obtain the required 50 percent to win the first round of the presidential race.
Erdogan’s unexpectedly strong showing amid a deepening cost of living crisis, and the victory of an alliance including his conservative Justice and Development Party, the Nationalist Movement Party and other parties in the parliamentary elections bolstered the veteran president, who said a vote for him was a vote for stability..
Kilicdaroglu is the candidate of the opposition coalition consisting of six parties, and leads the Republican People’s Party, which was established by the founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. His camp struggled to regain momentum after the shock of Erdogan’s first-round victory.
The elections will determine not only who will rule Turkey, a NATO member of 85 million people, but also how it is governed, the direction of its economy after its currency has fallen to a tenth of its value against the dollar in a decade and the shape of its foreign policy..
The primary election results showed more support than expected for nationalism, a strong current in Turkish politics intensified by years of fighting with Kurdish militants, an attempted coup in 2016 and an influx of millions of refugees from Syria since the war there began in 2011..
Third-place presidential candidate Sinan Ogan, an ultra-nationalist, said he supports Erdogan on the basis of the principle of “continuous struggle (against) terrorism”, referring to pro-Kurdish groups. Ogan got 5.17 percent of the vote.
Another nationalist, Umit Özdağ, leader of the anti-immigration Zafar Party, announced an agreement declaring his party’s support for Kilicdaroglu, after he said he would repatriate the migrants. The Zafar Party won 2.2 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections held this month.
An opinion poll conducted by the Kunda Research and Consulting Company showed that the expected support for Erdogan in the run-off would be 52.7 percent, compared to 47.3 percent for Kilicdaroglu, after distributing the undecided voters. The opinion poll was conducted on May 20 and 21, before Ogan and Ozdag announced their positions.
The other important element is how Türkiye’s Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the population, will vote.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party endorsed Kilicdaroglu in the first round, but after tilting to the right to win nationalist votes, did not name him explicitly and urged voters to reject Erdogan’s “one-man regime” in the run-off..
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Polling stations will open at 8 am (0500 GMT) and close at 5 pm (1400 GMT). By late Sunday, there should be a clear indication of a winner.
“Turkey has long-standing democratic traditions and long-standing nationalist traditions, and it is now clear that nationalist traditions have won out,” said Nicholas Danforth, a non-resident fellow at the Hellenic Institute for European and Foreign Policy (Eliamp) who specializes in Turkish history.“.
“More Erdogan means more Erdogan. People know who he is and what his vision is for the country, and many of them seem to agree with that,” he added“.
The Turkish president did his best during his election campaign as he struggled to survive his toughest political test. And the man enjoys absolute loyalty from the religious Turks, who in the past felt that secular Turkey robbed them of their rights. Erdogan had previously overcame a coup attempt in 2016 and weathered several corruption scandals.
But if the Turks overthrow Erdogan, this will be largely as a result of their feeling a change in their economic conditions and a decline in their ability to meet basic needs in light of inflation that exceeded 85 percent in October 2022 and the collapse of the lira..
On the other hand, Kilicdaroglu pledged to return, if he wins, to traditional economic policies and move away from Erdogan’s policies.
He also said he would seek to return the country to a parliamentary system of government, and abolish the executive presidential system that was approved in a 2017 referendum.
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