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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) – Two decades of leadership under NATO member-state Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership, which faces economic turmoil and erosion of democratic checks and balances, is strong as election polls close in Turkey on Sunday. It became dangerous after the challenge. from opposition candidates.
The election will either give 69-year-old Erdogan a new five-year term in office, or he will endorse buoyed opposition leader Kemal Kirikdaroglu, who has promised to put Turkey back on a more democratic path. You may lose your seat. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the race will be decided by a runoff vote on May 28.
Voters also elected deputies to fill Turkey’s 600 parliamentary seats, which lost much of its legislative power under President Erdogan. If the political alliance wins, President Erdogan could continue his rule without major restrictions. The opposition has promised to return Turkey’s governing system to parliamentary democracy if it wins both the presidential and parliamentary votes.
Opinion polls showed that the increasingly authoritarian leader was leading an election ahead of his challengers for the first time. Erdogan has ruled Turkey as prime minister or president since 2003.
Pre-election polls show Mr. Kirikdaroglu slightly aheadThe 74-year-old co-candidate of the six-party opposition coalition led by the center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Voting began at 8:00 am (GMT 0500) and ended at 5:00 pm (GMT 1400). According to Turkey’s election practices, media outlets are prohibited from reporting partial results until the embargo is lifted at 9:00 p.m. No exit polls.
More than 64 million people, including 3.4 million overseas voters, were eligible to vote in elections in the year the country celebrated its 100th anniversary as a republic. Turkey’s voter turnout has traditionally been high, reflecting the public’s continued belief in democratic voting.
But Turkey has suffered a severe cost-of-living crisis that critics blamed on the government’s misguided economic policies, as freedoms of expression and assembly have been curtailed under Erdogan’s government.
Turkey is also reeling from the effects of a massive earthquake that devastated 11 southern provinces in February, killing more than 50,000 people in dangerous buildings. Erdogan’s government has been criticized for its slow and slow response to disasters and lax enforcement of building codes. That compounded the casualties and misery.
Internationally, the election was watched as a test of the joint opposition’s ability to oust a leader who had concentrated nearly all state power in his hands.
Erdogan has used his domineering position over state resources and the media to lure voters and lead a divisive campaign. He accused opposition parties of colluding with “terrorists”, “hard drinkers” and defending LGBTQ+ rights, a threat to traditional family values.
To secure support from an inflation-hit population, he increased wages and pensions, subsidized electricity and gas bills, and showcased Turkey’s own defense and infrastructure projects.
He also expanded the political alliance between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and two nationalist parties to include smaller left-wing parties and two Islamist minorities.
The Six-Party National Alliance, led by Kilikdaroglu, has pledged to abolish the executive presidential system, which was narrowly passed in a 2017 referendum.. The opposition coalition also pledged to restore judicial and central bank independence and reverse the crackdown on free speech and other forms of democratic setbacks under Erdogan.
The alliance includes the Nationalist Good Party, led by former Interior Minister Meral Akhtner, the Islamist Minor Party, and two splintered parties from the AKP, one led by former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and one led by former Finance Minister Ali Babakan. )It is included. .
The country’s main Kurdish political party, which is currently Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, supports Mr. Kilicdaroglu in the presidential election. Erdogan’s government has targeted party leaders with arrests and lawsuits in recent years.
On a warm spring day, people could be seen lining up outside classrooms as they walked to polling stations in many parts of the country. Ankara officials said voter turnout was expected to be even higher than in previous years.
The lines were partly due to the problems many voters had with folding thick ballots and putting them in envelopes with their presidential ballots.
“For Turkey it is important. It is important for the people,” said Ankara voter Nekati Aktuna. “I have been voting for the last 60 years. I have never seen an election as important as this one.”
A large crowd gathered outside the polling station where Erdogan and Kirikda Rogul voted.
“We all miss democracy so much. There, his supporters shouted, “President Kirikudarogur!”
“You’ll see spring coming to this country,” he said.
Erdoğan said people were voting “with great enthusiasm and love” even in the areas affected by the earthquake, and that the votes were being conducted “without any problems”.
“I hope that after the night’s tally there will be a better future for our country, our country and Turkish democracy,” he said.
Sinan Ogan, a former academic backed by anti-immigration nationalist parties, also ran for president. Another candidate, center-left politician Muharrem Inje, withdrew from the race on Thursday. After his ratings plummeted, the country’s electoral commission said his resignation was void and votes for him would be counted.
Some have expressed concern that Erdogan will relinquish power if he is defeated. But Erdogan, in an interview with more than a dozen Turkish broadcasters on Friday, said he was in power through democracy and would act in line with democratic processes.
Good Party leader Akhtner appealed for respect after the vote.
“We are now moving to a stage where we have to respect the outcome of the ballot box where people voted freely according to their conscience,” she said.
Voting in 11 states affected by the earthquakeabout 9 million people were eligible to vote, raising concerns.
About 3 million people left the affected areas for other states, but only 133,000 registered to vote in their new locations. Political parties and non-governmental organizations have planned to transport voters by bus, but it is unclear how many have sent them home.
Many of the earthquake survivors voted in containers that became improvised polling stations in schoolyards.
In the earthquake-hit Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir, Ramazan Akchai arrived early at the polling station to vote.
“God wants democratic elections,” he said. “May it be useful in the name of our country.”
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Birginsoy reported from Istanbul. Mucahit Ceylan contributed from Diyarbakir, Turkey.
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