Turkey must look ahead to a presidential runoff on Might 28 to search out out who will govern the nation for the following 5 years: incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Justice and Improvement Social gathering, AKP, Islamo-Conservative), who has been in energy since 2014, or his direct opponent, democrat Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (Republican Individuals’s Social gathering, CHP, center-left), who heads a ragtag coalition.
Though he approached the vote weakened by the financial disaster, human rights violations and the latest earthquake that killed some 50,000 individuals earlier this 12 months, Erdoğan got here out on prime within the first spherical on Might 14 with 49.5 % of the vote. Regardless of polls exhibiting him within the lead, Kılıçdaroğlu solely obtained 44.9 % of the vote.
Within the parliamentary elections held on the identical day, the AKP-led coalition received 49.5 % of the vote – 267 out of 600 seats – in contrast with 35 % for the Kemalist opposition and 10.5 % for Kurdish events. Erdoğan seems to have maintained his place as Turkey’s strongman and, even when the election has but to succeed in its conclusion, any hopes for regime change now appear more and more unrealistic.
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