On Sunday, May 14, presidential elections are held in Turkey. At 8 o'clock all polling stations opened. The main competitors are incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition representative Kemal Kilicdaroglu. In parallel, parliamentary elections are underway.
Who can become the new president of Turkey, what are Erdogan's chances and how is the vote - read on TSN.ua.
How is the voting
According to Anadolu, about
8:00 all polling stations opened throughout Turkey.
In 973 districts and 1094 district election commissions, 191,884 ballot boxes were installed, which will determine the president, who will hold office for 5 years, and new members of parliament.
More than 60 million voters take part in the elections. The first round will end at 17.00 throughout Turkey.
Voters will put two separate ballots in one envelope - for the president and deputies. First, a count and a list of ballots for voting in the presidential election will be carried out.
Presidential candidates
Competing for the presidency:
the current President of Turkey, who has ruled the country for 20 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
leader of the Republican People's Party and leader of the opposition, candidate from the six-party bloc "National Alliance"
Kemal Kilicdaroglu,
former MHP MP (2011–2015)
Sinan Ogan,
leader of the Batkivshchyna Party, presidential candidate in 2018
Muharrem Inse withdrew his candidacy three days before the election. However, his name will remain on the ballot after the printing and distribution of the ballots is completed.
The main rivals are
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu
According to polls, the current president may lose to Kemal Kilicdaroglu. According to a Konda poll published by Reuters, Erdogan lags behind his main rival Kilicdaroglu by more than five percentage points. Polls show that Erdogan is supported by 43.7% of voters, and Kilicdaroglu - 49.3%,
Ogan - less than 10%.
The social survey was conducted with 3480 people in 35 provincial centers. The survey has an error of 2.2% with a confidence level of 99%.
Meanwhile, the Metropoll poll also showed that a second round is possible: Kilicdaroglu received 49.1%, and Erdogan - 46.9%. In the second round, Kilicdaroglu wins with a score of 51.3%.
Turkey elects a new president on May 14. PHOTO: Recep Tayyip Erdogan/Twitter
What Ukraine Should Expect from the Elections
As previously reported, if Kilicdaroglu wins the election, Ukraine most likely will not hear statements that Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine is actually a "Cold War 2.0", and that Russia is not going to seize new Ukrainian territories, but is only trying to build a just world order, as Erdogan's adviser Ibrahim Kalin recently said
However, one should not expect Turkey to actively support Ukraine. In October last year, Kilicdaroglu noted that Turkey should support Ukraine in the war unleashed by the Russian Federation. But despite such statements, he acknowledged that Ankara would maintain economic relations with Russia.
According to Western media, probably, if the opposition wins, Turkey will join sanctions against Moscow and immediately begin to block double imports to Russia. And Kilicdaroglu himself has already made a kind of curtsy towards Beijing, proposing to build the "Silk Road of the 21st century" from China to Turkey.
Read also:
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