The day after tomorrow (Sunday), Turkish voters will go to the polls for the second time in two weeks to choose the new president in the second round of the presidential elections, after the first round ended with no candidate obtaining a majority of half plus one.
While Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s chances seem great in resolving the presidential race, his opponent, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, went on to escalate his rhetoric on a number of issues, especially refugees, in an attempt to win more votes.
Erdogan focused on his ability to rebuild the areas destroyed by the recent earthquake, and reaffirmed his commitment to transfer Turkey to the ranks of developed countries in conjunction with the start of the second centenary of the Republic.
For his part, Kemal Klejdar escalated his rhetoric and adopted a hard-line rhetoric towards refugees to obtain the votes of nationalists and youth and focus on the biggest challenge, which is to get the opposition supporters out of the state of frustration caused by the results of the first round.
As of yesterday (Thursday), one million 895 thousand and 430 Turkish voters participated in voting during the second round of the presidential elections in foreign representations and border crossings.
And the Turkish Supreme Elections Authority announced the end of the voting process in the second round on the evening of May 24, while voting continues at the border crossings, according to the Anadolu Agency.
The number of those who voted in foreign representations and border crossings by ten o’clock on Thursday evening (+3 GMT) reached 1,895,430, including 1,783,107 people who were elected in foreign missions and representations.
The voting process for Turks registered in their places of residence outside the country ended by 22:00 (local time) on Wednesday, while it continues at border crossings and airports until 17:00 on May 28.
On May 14, Turkey witnessed presidential and parliamentary elections. The candidate of the People’s Alliance, the current President Recep Erdogan, the candidate of the Nation Alliance, the leader of the Republican People’s Party, Kamal Kilicdaroglu, and the candidate of the Ata Sinan Ogan coalition competed in the presidential elections.
Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Commission officially announced the second round of presidential elections between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu on May 28, as no candidate received more than 50% of the vote.
Erdogan won 49,525 of the vote, while Kilicdar won 44.88%, and Sinan Ogan 5.17%, according to the final results.