AMN / WEB DESK
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed to win a landslide victory in the May 28 presidential runoff election. “Now is the time to crown the success we achieved on May 14 with a greater victory,” Erdogan said on Twitter.
Millions of voters went to the polls on Sunday to elect the country’s president and members of its 600-seat parliament. Erdogan’s People’s Alliance won a majority in parliament, while the presidential race is headed to a second-round runoff on May 28, though Erdogan took the lead in round one.
Erdogan and his closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, will face off in round two.
“We are an alliance that puts the national will and the love of serving the country, and the nation at the centre of its politics,” Erdogan said.
Earlier Erdogan said that regardless of the result, the winner of Türkiye’s landmark elections was “Turkish democracy and the Turkish nation.”
“We respect the nation’s will manifested through ballot box,” Erdogan said on Twitter on Monday, following the May 14 elections.
He said he believes his alliance will emerge victorious from the May 28 runoff election by attracting more votes, adding: “hopefully, we’ll achieve a historical success.”
By giving the People’s Alliance a majority in the Turkish parliament in Sunday’s elections, Turkish people affirmed the “trust and belief in us and our alliance,” he added.
Tarihimizin en yüksek katılımlı seçimlerinden biri olan 14 Mayıs seçimleri, aziz milletimizin basiret ve ferasetiyle demokrasimize yakışır bir şölen havası içinde gerçekleşmiştir.…
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) May 15, 2023
Earlier on Monday, the head of the nation’s election authority said Türkiye will hold a second-round runoff on May 28 to elect the president after no candidate won an outright majority in Sunday’s poll.
The first round of voting ended with no candidate able to clear the required 50 percent threshold, but Erdogan took the lead with 49.51 percent of the vote, according to Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Election Council (YSK).
READ MORE: Türkiye 2023 election goes to historic runoff
His closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, secured 44.88 percent of the vote. They will face off in the second round on May 28.
Meanwhile, Sinan Ogan of the ATA Alliance got 5.17 percent, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.44 percent, Yener added.
Voter turnout was 88.92 percent, with turnout from Turkish citizens abroad at 52.69 percent, Yener said. Data entry continues for 35,874 ballots cast abroad, he noted.