The second round of Turkey’s presidential elections has begun. Since Sunday morning, citizens can vote for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The polling places are open until Sunday afternoon (4:00 PM CEST). Preliminary results are expected in the evening.
Erdogan, 69, is the favorite in the vote. Although he received the most votes in the first round of the election two weeks ago, he missed the necessary absolute majority. Kilicdaroglu finished about 4.5 percentage points behind the Islamic conservative head of state, who has ruled the country for 20 years.
Record participation in Austria
About 61 million people are invited to vote. Turkish citizens in Austria have already voted. Once again a record participation was recorded in this country. According to the Turkish embassy in Vienna, a total of 67,726 votes were counted. This corresponds to a turnout of 60.47 percent of the 112,000 eligible voters or 4.3 percentage points more than in the first round of voting. In the first round, 72 percent of Turkish voters in Austria voted for Erdogan.
Not a fair choice?
The elections are generally considered free, but not fair. Sunday also marks the anniversary of the government-critical Gezi protests of 2013. Against the backdrop of increasingly hostile sentiment towards refugees, the issue of migration played a major role in the election campaign. According to official figures, there are about 3.4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey. The election also comes against the background of a currency crisis and the devastating earthquakes in February.
Kilicdaroglu is leader of the social-democratic party CHP, representing a broad coalition of six parties. Erdogan became prime minister in 2003 and has been president since 2014. Since the introduction of a presidential system five years ago, he has had far-reaching powers.
Source: Krone
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