Top 5 oddities in Turkey’s presidential election

A voter in Erdoğan's constituency holds a pen that was handed out for free during Erdoğan's Istanbul mayoral campaign in the 1990s. Emine Er showed the pencil to Anadolu Agency's correspondent during celebrations following Erdoğan's presidential victory on Aug. 11. (Photo: Bülent Doruk / Anadolu Agency)

1) Uncle Mehmet, ‘the 130-year-old voter’

Turkey’s semi-official Anadolu Agency (AA) claimed in a report that the world’s oldest person showed up to vote in the election on Aug. 10, 130-year-old Mehmet Esen from the eastern province of Siirt. However, Esen’s birth record shows that he was born on May 24, 1329 in the old Rumi calendar, corresponding to June 6, 1913 in today’s Gregorian calendar. So, Esen is actually 101 years old.




2) Erdoğan’s son almost fell from the balcony

Bilal Erdoğan, the youngest son of Turkey’s president-elect, stumbled and almost fell from the balcony, minutes before his father’s much-anticipated victory speech in front of his party headquarters. Berat Albayrak, the president-elect’s son-in-law, was on hand to help Bilal back to his feet.