Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the nation during the pandemic, Ankara, April 18, 2020. Photo: Getty Images.

According to data from Anadolu Agency, the current Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has won the second round of Turkey's presidential elections on Sunday, after a close contest against opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

With 99.02% of the votes counted, the current president, candidate of the People's Alliance, obtains 52.08% of the votes compared to 47.92% of Kilicdaroglu, who concurs for the Alliance of the Nation, collects the agency. The final results will be announced by the supreme electoral body in a subsequent message.

"I want to thank each and every member of our nation, who have once again entrusted us with the responsibility of governing the country for the next 5 years," Erdogan said at a rally before supporters in Istanbul. "The winner of the elections on May 14 and May 28 are the 85 million citizens," added the president, leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Even before the final results were announced, several world leaders congratulated Erdogan on the victory. The Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani; Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyeev, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev were the first to do so.

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, also joined the congratulations. "Venezuela celebrates the triumph of our brother and friend Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who won the presidential and parliamentary elections in Türkiye. We congratulate the Turkish people on this victory, wishing to continue working together to build the new world. Long live Türkiye!", Maduro wrote on his Twitter account.

The May 28 runoff was held after neither candidate managed to exceed 50% of the votes in the first round.

(Taken from RT en Español)