The announcement followed the Turkish president’s victory proclamation.
After defeating Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a runoff election, the president of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has announced that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won a third term in office.
Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Election Council, told reporters on Sunday night that Erdogan won 52.14 percent of the vote to Kilicdaroglu’s 47.86%. According to figures released by the council, Erdogan defeated his opponent by a margin of approximately 2,2 million ballots.
Today, nobody has lost. Erdogan stated in his second victory speech outside the presidential palace in Ankara that each of Turkey’s 85 million citizens had triumphed. “It is time to put aside all election-related disputes and quarrels and unite around our national aspirations and goals.”
A tally by Turkey’s Anadolu Agency showed an insurmountable disparity between Erdogan and Kilcdaroglu within hours of ballots concluding on Sunday evening, when Yener addressed the press.
After approximately 98% of ballots were tallied, Erdogan declared victory at a rally in front of his Istanbul home, where he hailed “each and every member of the nation” for participating in the election.
Turkey held its second election in as many weeks after Erdogan won the first round of voting on May 14, but fell short of the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff. With the elimination of the third candidate, Sinan Ogan, on Sunday, a second round was convened.
Erdogan, who has been president since 2014 and prime minister for eleven years prior, is a social conservative who has steered Turkey away from EU integration while consolidating his own authority and promoting moderate Islamist policies at home. He has established close commercial and diplomatic ties with Russia and China, while positioning himself as a potential peacemaker in regional conflicts, including Ukraine.
Kilicdaroglu is a more liberal politician who pledged to repair Turkey’s fraught ties with its NATO allies and resume EU accession negotiations.
Kilicdaroglu has effectively conceded defeat, telling his supporters on Sunday that he was “saddened” by the results of “the most unjust election ever” and that he will continue to struggle for “real democracy” in the future.
