Turkish Media reports
Turkey to hold presidential runoff on May 28, election authority announces
The election watchdog has officially announced that Turkey will go to runoff elections to elect the next president following the May 14 polls that saw incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ahead of his main rival, Nation Alliance’s candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Election Board (YSK), informed that all the votes cast in the country and almost all abroad votes were counted as of the late afternoon on May 15.
“According to the results, it has been observed that no presidential candidate could get enough votes to be elected as the president. Our board decided to go to the second round of polls on May 28 in line with the relevant laws,” Yener told the media.
In a highly anticipated news conference in the capital Ankara, Ahmet Yener, chair of the YSK, told reporters that "100%" of the ballot boxes were opened in 81 provinces of Turkey and the turnout rate was registered as 88.92% within Turkish borders and 52.69% among voters abroad.
Yener said Erdoğan gained 49.51 percent of votes and Kılıçdaroğlu 44.85 percent of votes. Both contenders remained under the required 50 percent plus one vote threshold to be elected. The third candidate, Sinan Oğan from the Ata Alliance, secured 5.17 percent of the votes. Muharrem İnce, the chairman of the Homeland Party, had received 0.44 percent of the votes, although he had announced his withdrawal from the race only days before the elections.
In line with this picture, Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu will compete in the elections on May 28, and the one who secures the most votes will be the next Turkish president.
Yener also informed that the turnout in the elections was registered as 88.92 percent.
He said Turks living abroad will be able to vote both at the Turkish diplomatic missions and border gates. Those who want to vote abroad can cast their votes between May 20 and 24, but the polling stations will continue to operate until 5 p.m. on May 28.
Yener also announced that the campaign for runoff started as of Monday. He said final, formal results for the first round of the election will be announced on May 19 and voters abroad would be able to start voting on May 23.
According to Sabah Daily, though this is the first time that he faced a runoff, President Erdoğan is victorious anyway in Turkish politics as he has been over the past two decades. This was indeed his 16th victory in elections where he ran either as prime minister or president, along with victories in critical referendums in the same period.
More than 64.1 million people were registered to vote, including over 1.76 million who cast their ballots abroad and 4.9 million first-time voters.
A total of 192,214 ballot boxes were set up for voters in the country.
Every voter cast two ballots, one for the president and the other for parliamentary deputies, all of whom are set to serve five-year terms.
More than 30 political parties and over 150 independent parliamentary candidates competed in the elections.
There were five multiparty blocs in the running: the People's Alliance, Nation Alliance, Ancestral Alliance, Labor and Freedom Alliance, and Union of Socialist Forces Alliance.
Western media pivots after Erdoğan's election success
Barely hours after it began to become clear Turkey’s much-anticipated and internationally scrutinized presidential elections would stretch into a runoff, Western media outlets backpedaled in their biased rhetoric toward incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose polling success in the first round has been broadly described as a “surprise.”
Some 61 million Turks were called on to vote on Sunday to elect Turkey’s 13th president and 600 members of Parliament, over three months following two catastrophic earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people, left millions displaced and homeless in the southeast, amid a cost-of-living crisis, at that.
Erdoğan and his main challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, along with two other candidates, one of whom dropped out of the race mere days before the vote, have campaigned tirelessly, building their promises around the determination to revive the earthquake-hit provinces and deliver more economic growth.
The period, however, was not without outside influence, especially in the form of blatant bias.
The Economist in particular has been leading an intensive campaign against Erdoğan, publishing provocative covers, openly backing his opposition, conveniently ignoring the democratic process in Turkey and urging Turks to “kick Erdoğan out” on May 14.
The magazine has often incurred the wrath of Turkish officials and social media users in recent months leading up to the elections for attempting to direct voters and openly admitting that “an opposition win would mean major geopolitical significance for the West.”
The 49.51% support for Erdoğan in the first round, however, was enough for even The Economist to backtrack, whoosh away the anti-Erdoğan tags on its social media profiles in mere minutes, and acknowledge that Erdoğan now “appears the clear favorite to win in the second round.”
With more than 99% of the ballot boxes opened on Monday, Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) counted only 45% for Erdoğan’s closest Kılıçdaroğlu, who is heading a six-party opposition alliance that equally “performed even worse” in the parliamentary vote, according to the London-based weekly’s article titled “Erdoğan leads his challenger as Turkey votes.”
The Nation Alliance won 35.1%, translating to about 213 out of the 600 seats in Parliament, losing the majority to Erdoğan’s People’s Alliance, which walked away with 49.4% enough to retain a comfortable majority – an estimated 321 seats – in the assembly.
“Turks had not given up on democracy, the turnout in the elections showed. More than 88% of eligible voters went to the polls on May 14, a very high number by any standards,” the magazine said.
According to the British magazine, the election held “much at stake” both for Turkey and its foreign policy, “especially its relationship with Russia.”
Much like The Economist, the tune changed rather quickly in other media outlets across Western Europe, as well, with agencies in France, Germany and Switzerland conceding Erdoğan as a “clear favorite” likely to win the second round on May 28.
“If there is a runoff election in two weeks, the incumbent will probably have a head start,” German FAZ wrote.
Pointing to the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) parliamentary majority, it argued, “That could persuade many voters in the second round to vote for stable conditions instead of a candidate who would not have his own majority in Parliament.”
According to France24, third-placed candidate Sinan Oğan’s votes will “mostly” go to Erdoğan in the runoff, sealing off a guaranteed victory for the incumbent leader.
For another German newspaper, Die Welt, Erdoğan’s near 50% was “a great surprising success.”
“Apparently, a considerable number of Turks regard him as a savior,” it said.
Swiss NZZ agreed, noting that Erdoğan “regained the trust of 26 million Turks as he scored the best results countrywide in the earthquake region.”
“Parliamentary distribution too gives him a strong hand,” it said.
Indeed, Erdoğan has vowed to revive the disaster-stricken zone and deliver at least 319,000 homes within the year. His government has already handed out keys to hundreds of homes for the victims.
He often slams “disruptions from the West” as attempts to “intervene” in Turkey’s domestic politics, as well as Kılıçdaroğlu’s promises to “mend ties with the U.S. and the EU" should he win the top office.
“You cannot decide my country’s fate; it is up to my nation,” Erdoğan reiterated at several rallies across the country.
https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/elections/western-media-pivots-after-erdogans-election-success
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