Counting of votes is underway for presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkiye. Voting was held today. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade rule is facing a tough challenge from main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads an alliance of six opposition parties. Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old former bureaucrat, has promised to fix Turkiye’s faltering economy and restore democratic institutions. On the other hand, Erdogan has been extolling the virtues of his long rule, independent Foreign Policy and his efforts to bolster Turkiye’s defense industry continuously. Recently, he raised the wages of government workers by 45 per cent and lowered the retirement age.
The vote will decide not only who leads Turkiye, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy. In a Presidential election, a candidate must win over 50 per cent of the vote in order to be elected. Otherwise, Turkiye will head to a run-off on the 28th of May.
The Parliamentary election also took place at the same time as the Presidential elections. Turkiye follows a system of proportional representation in Parliament. Parties must obtain not less than seven per cent of votes – either on their own or in alliance with other parties – in order to enter Parliament.