(CNN) – Polling stations are closed and vote counting is underway in Turkey’s hard-fought presidential and parliamentary elections that could end President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year rule.
This Sunday’s elections pose the Turkish leader’s biggest challenge yet. Erdogan faces economic difficulties and says the effects of the devastating February 6 earthquake were exacerbated by lax construction controls and chaotic rescue efforts.
His main opponent is Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who represents an electoral coalition of six opposition parties. For the first time, the Turkish opposition was united around a single candidate.
To be elected, a candidate must receive more than 50% of the votes that Sunday night. Otherwise, Turkey will go into the second round on May 28th.
Voters line up in front of a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, May 14, 2023. (Photo: Hannah McKay/Portal)
An election representative prepares ballot papers at a polling station in Istanbul. (Photo: Francisco Seco/AP)
At a polling station in Istanbul’s Beyogly district, 46-year-old voter Korhan Futaci told CNN: “My vote is for freedom. My vote is for the future of our children. I have hope.”
Yeliz Sahin, 46, whose brother and son died in the quake, said: “This is a historic moment that we have been waiting for 20 years. This whole system needs to change.”
For his part, Eren Uzmele, 19, a first-time voter, said: “The future of the country is in our hands. It is in the hands of youth.”
Kılıçdaroğlu, a mild-mannered 74-year-old former bureaucrat, vowed to fix Turkey’s flagging economy and restore democratic institutions marred by Erdogan’s slide into authoritarianism.
The main candidates cast their votes
After voting in Istanbul, Erdogan told reporters: “We pray to God for a better future for our country, our nation and Turkish democracy. It is very important that all our voters vote without any worries until 5 p.m. to demonstrate the “Strength of Turkish Democracy”.
Meanwhile, after the vote in Ankara, Kılıcdaroglu said: “We all missed the democracy, togetherness and hugs so much. Let’s hope that from now on they will see that spring is coming to this country and it will always go on like this.”
Erdogan ended his election campaign this Saturday night with a prayer at Hagia Sophia, a mosque and important historical site in Istanbul. Instead, Kilicdaroglu visited the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey and a staunch layman.
Erdogan has extolled the virtues of his long rule, campaigned on a platform of stability and independent foreign policy, and continued to strengthen Turkey’s defense industry. He recently increased civil servant salaries by 45% and lowered the retirement age.
In the past two years, Turkey’s currency has plummeted and prices have soared, leading to a cost-of-living crisis that has eroded Erdogan’s conservative and worker-leaning support base.
When a violent earthquake devastated large parts of south-eastern Turkey on February 6, Erdogan was confronted with political aftershocks. His detractors slammed him for the poor management of the rescue effort and lax construction controls that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK) led for two decades.
Several blank ballot papers at a polling station in Ankara. (Photo: Yves Hermann/Portal)
A woman votes at a polling station in Istanbul. (Photo: Francisco Seco/AP)
In the weeks following the earthquake, the government arrested dozens of contractors, building inspectors and project managers for violating building codes. Critics called the step a scapegoat.
The government also apologized for “mistakes” committed in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.
The earthquake killed more than 51,000 people in Türkiye and neighboring Syria. Thousands remain missing and southeastern Turkey is littered with unmarked graves.
On Thursday, Kılıçdaroğlu was bolstered by the late withdrawal of a supporting candidate, Muharrem Ince. Ince was way down in the polls, but some members of the opposition feared he would split the anti-Erdogan voice.
Türkiye holds elections every five years. More than 1.8 million voters residing abroad had already cast their ballots as of April 17, Turkey’s Daily Sabah newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing the country’s deputy foreign minister. More than 65 million Turks can vote.
The head of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), Ahmet Yener, said last month that at least a million voters in the earthquake-hit areas are expected not to vote this year due to displacement.