Partial results show Erdoğan achieving presidential election win

ANKARA

Unofficial results from Turkey’s presidential election show incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with a commanding lead, paving the way him to govern under a new constitution which grants the president new powers.

Erdogan had 52.7 percent of the vote with 96 percent of the votes counted in the presidential election late on June 24, enough for him to win outright and avoid a runoff election, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

His challenger Muharrem İnce was in second place with nearly 30.7 percent of the vote, according to the unofficial results of Anadolu Agency.

İnce, a 54-year-old former physics teacher, has wooed crowds with an unexpectedly engaging campaign and received around 8 percentage points more than his party, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which received 22.7 percent.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) jailed candidate Selahattin Demirtaş was hovering at around 8 percent. Demirtaş had to run his campaign from prison, where he is being held in pre-trial detention on terror-related charges.

Five candidates were running against Erdogan in the presidential race.

Former Interior Minister Meral Akşener, the only female presidential candidate in the race, also challenged Erdoğan with 7.4 percent of votes nationwide. She broke away from Turkey’s main nationalist party, the MHP, over its support for Erdoğan and formed the center-right, nationalist İYİ (Good) Party.

Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu and Patriotic Party (VP) leader Doğu Perinçek received 0.9 percent and 0.2 respectively, according to Anadolu Agency.

The counting of votes was underway for Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections as the Hürriyet Daily News went to press late Sunday.

The vote took place under a state of emergency declared after the failed coup attempt in July 2016.

Erdoğan was seeking re-election for a five-year term with hugely increased powers under the new system, which the AKP claims will bring prosperity and stability to the country.

These elections were originally scheduled for November 2019 but were brought forward after a call by MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, and then endorsed by the ruling party as well. Sunday’s vote ushers in a powerful new executive presidency long sought by Erdoğan. He was prime minister for 11 years before becoming president in 2014.

In a statement at 10.10 p.m., CHP spokesman Bülent Tezcan said the party’s candidate İnce had 33.65 percent and Erdoğan was at 51.7 percent with 39 percent of votes counted, warning that it is too early to declare a victory for Erdoğan. There are still 110,000 ballot boxes to be counted and the presidential election could still go a second round of voting on July 8, Tezcan added.