(Ankara) Polling stations in Turkey closed their doors on Sunday after the second round of a presidential election in which incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan left as the favorite after two decades in power, facing his social-democratic rival Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
Despite a strong desire for change from part of the electorate, tired of the economic crisis, restrictions on freedoms and the hyper-presidentialization of a power that has sent tens of thousands of opponents behind bars or in exile, the 69-year-old head of state came out with a five-point lead in the first round on May 14, with 49.5% of the vote.
Tired-faced, slow-moving Recep Tayyip Erdogan cast his vote at midday in the Usküdar district on the Asian side of Istanbul: a cheery crowd awaited him, to whom bodyguards handed out toys while the president slipped some banknotes to children.
“No country in the world has participation rates of 90%, Turkey has almost reached them. I ask my fellow citizens to come and vote without weakening,” he argued.
In the first round, participation had reached 87%.
Almost simultaneously, all smiles despite the unfavorable forecasts, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu cast his ballot in Ankara, encouraging his fellow citizens to vote “so that real democracy and freedom can come to this country, to get rid of an authoritarian government”.
PHOTO ALI UNAL, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu voted with his wife Selvi Kilicdaroglu in Ankara.
“Difficult” campaign
The two candidates called on their supporters to watch over the ballot boxes until the final results. “Now is the time to protect the will of our nation above our heads until the last moment!” Mr. Erdogan tweeted immediately after the polls closed at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. Eastern).
The Erdogan camp has constantly described the opposition led by Kiliçdaroglu as “terrorist” because of the support given to it by the leaders of the pro-Kurdish HDP party.
PHOTO FRANCISCO SECO, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A queue at a polling station in Istanbul
“We call on everyone for calm before the count,” said Halis Firet, 56, an observer for Kiliçdaroglu’s party, the CHP, at a polling station in Istanbul.
The first results are expected at the very beginning of the evening, officials of the ruling party, the Islamo-conservative AKP of Mr. Erdogan, have suggested.
On the evening of the first round, they had been the subject of numerous verbal challenges from the opposition, which this time decided to post five tellers in front of each ballot box – that is a million observers across the country.
People interviewed by AFP in the polling station queues testified to the polarization of the country after these weeks of campaigning.
In Ankara, Mehmet Emin Ayaz, a 64-year-old entrepreneur, considered it “important to keep what has been acquired over the past twenty years in Turkey” under the Erdogan era. On the other hand, Aysen Gunday, a 61-year-old retiree, wanted to make this election “a referendum” against the president and chose Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
Two visions of the country, of society and of governance were offered to the 60 million voters in Turkey (the diaspora has already voted) called to the polls: stability at the risk of autocracy with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or the return promised to the rule of law and justice, in his words, with his opponent, a 74-year-old former senior civil servant.
No more than during the first round campaign, the economy did not impose itself in the national debate despite inflation around 40% and the plummeting of the national currency which strongly impacts the purchasing power of the population.
Even the areas devastated by the February 6 earthquake, which left at least 50,000 dead and three million displaced, had massively placed their trust in the head of state, who multiplied largesse and promises of reconstruction.
Facing him, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the “demokrat dede” – the democratic grandpa – as this trained economist with white hair and thin glasses presents himself, seemed downcast by his delay in the first round.
“We are less motivated” than in the first round, admitted one of his supporters, Bayram Ali Yüce, a 45-year-old welder.
Access to official TV
Lacking access to the major media and especially to official television channels, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu battled on Twitter when his supporters tried to remobilize voters by going door-to-door in the big cities.
Faced with this discreet man of Alevi obedience, a branch of Islam considered heretical by the rigorous Sunnis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has multiplied the gatherings, relying on the transformations he has been able to bring to the country since his accession to power. as Prime Minister in 2003, then as President since 2014.
The date of this second round comes ten years to the day after the start of the great demonstrations of “Gezi” which had spread throughout the country and had been severely repressed.
But on Sunday, the Erdogan camp showed its confidence in preparing the speech of the outgoing president, in the evening, from the presidential palace in Ankara.