Turkish people have begun voting in one of the most important elections in the country’s modern history that will determine the future of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades.
His main rival in the election is Kemal Kuluchdarulu, who is elected by the president. Erdoğan is promising to abolish the power he has axed. After a failed military coup in 2016, Recep Tayyip Erdogan greatly increased the executive powers of the presidency.
Mr. Kuluchdarulu is the candidate of a larger opposition coalition and many see him as having a real chance of winning the election.
But the electoral contest is so intense and so much of Turkey depends on it that the candidates continue to campaign until the very last minute.
President Erdoğan, in defiance of election rules, delivered a speech in front of a crowd of worshipers at a mosque in Istanbul on Saturday evening.
To win today’s elections, a candidate must get at least 50 percent of the total votes cast. Otherwise, a second round of voting will be held within two weeks.
Voters are reported to have lined up in front of polling stations long before the polls opened at 8:00 a.m. local time in Turkey.
Turkish voters are voting in this election at a time when they are facing difficult economic conditions.
Inflation is now rampant in the country. The official rate of inflation is 44 percent. But many people think it will actually be much more. On the other hand, 11 provinces of Turkey are struggling to deal with the shock of two earthquakes recently. More than 50 thousand people died in this earthquake.
Ankara voter Burak Onder was sitting in his glasses shop saying that people seem to have stopped buying glasses now. “People don’t even bargain for glasses now and then, it just doesn’t make sense to buy them.”
President Erdoğan has broken with the traditional rules of the economy by lowering interest rates, which has resulted in high inflation in Turkey. But at the same time interest rates were being increased in other countries of the world.
Rahima’s shop is on the same street as Burak Onder’s glasses shop. He is putting one price on top of another price on the goods, because the price is increasing every day.
“People come to the shop and ask why the prices are increasing every day, then they leave without buying anything,” he said.
Rahima’s 19-year-old daughter Sudenaar worries about her future. He wants to study sports science, but he is worried about whether this dream will be fulfilled.
The 50 lakh first-time voters like him are expected to play a major role in determining the outcome of this election.
Voting will be held until 5pm local time today, although some 1.7 million expatriate Turkish voters in Germany, France and other countries have already cast their ballots. The voter turnout was 53 percent.
Turkish cities are now covered in the colorful flags and slogans of rival parties. As the polling day approaches, so does the tension.
The opposition parties are sending their volunteers to supervise the counting of votes in about 192,000 ballot boxes, so that there is no fraud.
One of the four presidential candidates, Muharrim Ins withdrew from the election three days before the vote. He alleged that attempts were being made to “smear his character”. However, his name remains on the ballot paper as he withdrew his candidature so late.
At the very end of Saturday’s election campaign Mr. Külüçdarülü visited the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern secular Turkey, and paid his respects there.
Meanwhile, President Erdoğan ended his election campaign by attending evening prayers at the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul. In a video shared on social media, he is seen telling people coming to pray at a mosque that the Muslim world is watching closely what is happening in Turkey.
Mr. The way Erdoğan chose the mosque to end his election campaign and deliver a political speech there is highly controversial, but at the same time has great symbolic significance for his supporters.
Hagia Sophia was built as an Orthodox Christian cathedral. But it was converted into a mosque during the Ottoman era. Kemal Atatürk then converted it into a museum. But President Erdoğan, the founder of Turkey, changed this decision and made Hagia Sophia a mosque again in 2020.
In today’s vote, the people of Turkey will also vote for the election of 600 MPs. Although President Erdoğan has greatly increased the executive power of the president by reducing the powers of the parliament, the parliament still plays a key role in the formulation of new laws.
According to the rules of proportional representation in Turkish elections, a party needs at least 7 percent of the vote to win a seat in parliament. So political parties form electoral alliances to ensure they get seats.
President Erdogan’s AK Party, which has Islamist ties, is part of the People’s Alliance coalition. The coalition also includes the hardline nationalist MHP and two other parties. On the other hand Mr. Kuluchdarulu’s centre-left Republican People’s Party has formed an alliance with the Nationalist Good Party and four other smaller parties.
The pro-Kurdish HDP, Turkey’s second-largest opposition party, is part of another coalition. They are campaigning under the banner of Green Left Alliance.
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