Turkey’s presidential election will go to a runoff on May 28, after neither President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor his main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, won more than 50% of the vote in the first round on Sunday.
Erdogan received 49.5% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu got 44.89%, according to the Supreme Election Council. A third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.17% of the vote.
The runoff will be the first time that two Turkish presidents have faced off since the country’s first direct presidential election in 2007.
The election was held against the backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis and a series of earthquakes that have rocked Turkey in recent months. These factors have buoyed opposition hopes of unseating Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years.
Kilicdaroglu’s six-party Nation Alliance has pledged to dismantle an executive presidential system that was narrowly voted in by a referendum in 2017. The opposition alliance also promised to restore the independence of the judiciary and the central bank and to reverse crackdowns on free speech and dissent under Erdogan.
The election was billed as the most consequential since Turkey’s first fair multi-party polls in 1950. It boiled down to a choice between five more years of Erdogan or a new direction under an old party that has reinvented itself in recent years.
Erdogan frequently spoke at multiple rallies in a day during the campaign, highlighting the advances made in Turkey during his 20-year rule. He also lambasted the opposition for supporting “terrorism” or being in thrall to the West.
Kilicdaroglu, who has set the CHP on a more social democratic path since taking the helm of the party in 2010, was able to call on the support of alliance partners and the nationally recognized CHP mayors of Ankara and Istanbul to share the burden of public appearances.
Both candidates made use of social media to get their messages across in a vote where nearly five million were casting their ballots for the first time.
Despite the sometimes visceral rhetoric employed on the campaign trail, incidents of violence were rare. The main exception was the stoning of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s rally in the eastern city of Erzurum a week before the vote.
The parliamentary election also took place on Sunday, but it was largely overshadowed by the presidential race. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won 266 seats, while the CHP won 166 seats in the 600-seat parliament.
The second round of the presidential election will be held on May 28.
