Erdogan loses majority after most ballots are tallied – Media

Turkey’s presidential election is more and more likely to go to a second round.

With more than 90% of the votes in Turkey’s presidential election tabulated by midnight, official media claims that the lead between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his pro-Western rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu has shrunk.

Erdogan’s early comfortable advantage has shrunk to 49.5% of the vote after more than 95% of the ballot boxes have been opened and counted, falling just short of the 50% threshold required to avoid a runoff, according to Anadolu. Kilicdaroglu, his primary opponent, received 44,6% of the vote; Sinan Ogan came in third place with 5.2%.

In Türkiye, the turnout was about 89%, while among foreign voters who were registered to vote, it was over 52%. The majority of votes cast domestically have already tallied, however the bulk of votes cast abroad have not yet been counted. The distribution might also alter according on how the election body handles the votes cast for Muharrem Ince, who dropped out of the contest but still garnered about 0.5% of the vote.

Until the Supreme Election Council completes the count and releases the official results, a run-off election will be held on May 28 if no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. Ahmet Yener, the president of the electoral commission, rejected the opposition’s claims that it was holding up the announcement of the results on Sunday night, claiming that the information is being entered into the system and distributed to political parties “instantaneously.”