All data on the Türkiye run-off election
Erdogan takes on Kilicdaroglu
05/24/2023, 10:45 p.m
The eagerly awaited run-off election is due next Sunday in Turkey. Who will be the next Turkish President? Can incumbent Erdogan stay in power or will challenger Kilicdaroglu win? The most important numbers at a glance.
Two weeks after the first round, the presidential election in Turkey will be decided next Sunday, May 28th: Around 64 million eligible voters are called upon to vote for one of the two remaining candidates in a runoff election.
It is the first time that there has been a runoff in a presidential election in Turkey. In the first ballot on May 14, the incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan just missed the required absolute majority of 50 percent of the votes.
Note: Data and infographics on the runoff election in Turkey are constantly updated.
According to the official count, Erdogan got 49.52 percent in the first ballot. However, he performed significantly better than expected: the last polls before the first election date had seen him well behind his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu from the CHP. The previous opposition leader was in second place with 44.88 percent in mid-May.
Erdogan is the favorite in the runoff with a lead of a good 4.5 percentage points. A poll a week before the runoff date saw him narrowly ahead, 52 to 47. In addition, the 69-year-old Erdogan was able to secure a majority in parliament with his party, the AKP – a factor that analysts also see as an advantage for him in the runoff election. Should Kilicdaroglu become president, parliament could block many of his decisions.
The third-placed right-wing candidate Sinan Ogan received 5.17 percent in the first ballot. Muharrem Ince, who was eliminated before the election, 0.43 percent. This made it clear that there would be a runoff between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu. Before the second round, Ogan made a clear recommendation for Erdogan.
However, as the candidate of an ultra-nationalist party alliance, Ogan could only rely on a highly fragmented electorate. Whether his recommendation has an impact on the runoff is controversial. Some of his followers are likely to be closer to the Islamist-conservative AKP around Erdogan than to the CHP.
Before the runoff date, Kilicdaroglu continued to campaign intensively for votes – including with populist slogans. After Ogan’s election recommendation, he declared that it was now clear who was on Turkey’s side and who was selling the country, without mentioning Ogan by name. CHP leader Kilicdaroglu also called on the approximately 8.3 million non-voters in the country to cast their votes in the second ballot. Erdogan got 2.5 million more votes than Kilicdaroglu in the first ballot.
Voices from Germany
In power for two decades: Erdogan is fighting for his re-election with martial poses.
(Photo: AP)
In Germany, voting for the runoff election for the Turkish presidency began last weekend at 17 polling stations. In Berlin, for example, the vote obviously met with great interest. Hundreds of Turkish voters came to the Consulate General on Heerstrasse in the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district on Saturday, May 20 in the morning. Long queues formed in front of the building.
The Turkish consulates in North Rhine-Westphalia, where a good 500,000 around a third of the German-Turks eligible to vote live, also experienced a similar rush. By May 24, the approximately 1.5 million Turkish voters in Germany were called upon to vote between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu at the polls. The lion’s share of Turkish foreign votes comes from Germany.
For you, there are also around 1.9 million voters in other countries dedicated polling stations. Some of the votes for the runoff ended there last Sunday. In the United States, for example, there were only nine polling stations, three of which were in the New York metropolitan area. Both candidates had urged Turks abroad in particular to participate in the elections. Casting a vote for the runoff is a “national duty” for citizens wherever they are in the world, said Kilicdaroglu.
This is Turkey’s first run-off election at presidency level. In Germany, around 61 million people can take part in the election of the new president. Around 3.4 million eligible voters come from abroad.