Elections in Turkey 2023
The decision will probably only be made in the runoff
Head to head: After the vote on the future head of state in Turkey, there are signs of a runoff between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
In Turkey, people voted on Sunday - and will probably have to go to the polls again in two weeks. In the first ballot of the presidential election, after counting almost all the votes cast in the country, none of the three candidates was able to achieve an absolute majority. Who are the winners and who are the losers in Turkey's elections?
How did the presidential election in Turkey turn out?
The elections in Turkey were close and they are not over yet. According to the electoral authority, which counted almost all the votes, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan received 49.5 percent of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections.
His challenger from the opposition Kemalist CHP, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, achieved 44.5 percent. Sinan Oğan, the third contender for the post of head of state, received 5.2 percent of the vote. In polls before the election, Kılıçdaroğlu was ahead of Erdoğan.
Because no candidate achieved an absolute majority, voters can vote on the two best-placed candidates in the runoff on May 28. Then a simple majority is enough. Then it could be decisive who Oğan speaks out for. It is assumed that the economist and political scientist, who stood for a nationalist alliance, will side with Erdoğan.
A total of 64 million people – out of around 85 million residents in Turkey – were invited to vote. Of these, around 88 percent took part in the elections. The approximately 3.4 million Turkish citizens living abroad were able to vote before May 14, including 1.5 million people in Germany. The elections were supposed to take place in June, but Erdoğan had pushed them forward to May 14 by decree.
What is the result of the general election?
According to the state news agency Anadolu, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to win the parliamentary elections. The alliance formed by the Islamic nationalist AKP with other parties – including the extreme right-wing MHP – would get around 49 percent of the vote, with the AKP accounting for 35 percent. This would give the party 266 deputies in the 600-seat Grand National Assembly.
The opposition Millet alliance around the Republican People's Party (CHP) received around 35 percent of the votes cast. The left-green Alliance for Work and Freedom would get just over ten percent. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which is successful in the Kurdish-populated areas in south-eastern Turkey, is also in this group. Because there is a threshold of seven percent in Turkey (previously it was even ten percent), parties join together to form electoral alliances.
When will the election result be known?
In the elections for the future president and the distribution of seats in parliament, there is still no official result from the electoral authority. When it will be available is unclear.
The electoral authority does not issue any official projections, but these are published by the media, such as the state news agency Andolu, as well as political foundations close to the party. They collect the results from the polling stations.
How important are the elections in Turkey?
The elections in Turkey were considered trend-setting in advance. This related primarily to the question of whether the previous President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be re-elected. Linked to it is the introduction of the presidential system after the 2017 referendum, giving him wide-ranging powers while disempowering Parliament.
Critics accuse the AKP leader of authoritarian rule. In the meantime, the 69-year-old has taken over almost all areas of social life, administration and the state apparatus, including the judiciary, military and police, and important posts have been filled with confidants. Thousands of political opponents have been imprisoned or forced to leave the country; Protests like in 2013 were violently put down. In addition, the NATO country is waging war against the Kurdish population, with the army attacking targets in neighboring Syria and Iraq in violation of international law.
What were the main issues of the election campaign?
Turkey is currently struggling primarily with the consequences of the devastating earthquake in February of this year. 50,000 people lost their lives, according to the Turkish government, 3.3 million people have had to leave the earthquake area so far. According to estimates by the European Investment Bank,