ISTANBUL - Tayyip Erdogan was set to be Turkey’s next president after local media credited the veteran prime minister with more than half the vote in a near-complete count and allies said Erdogan had won.
After an election on Sunday that his opponents say may create an increasingly authoritarian state, broadcasters said Erdogan had 52.0 percent of the vote, 13 points more than his closest rival. Such a result would rule out a runoff round and seal Erdogan’s place in history as Turkey’s first directly elected head of state, a role expected to enhance his power. In a Twitter message confirmed by his office, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said: “Erdogan has become the first president elected by the people.” The deputy chairman of his ruling AK party said Erdogan won with just over 52 percent. Erdogan himself said “the people have shown their will” but stopped short of declaring victory in comments to supporters in Istanbul. He said he would speak later at party headquarters in the capital Ankara once the count was complete.
Turkey has emerged as a regional economic force under Erdogan, who, as prime minister for more than a decade, has ridden a wave of religiously conservative support to transform the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. But his critics warn that a President Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam and intolerance of dissent, would lead the NATO member and European Union candidate further away from Ataturk’s secular ideals. The main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, was on 38.8 percent with 90 percent of votes counted while Selahattin Demirtas of the pro-Kurdish, left-wing People’s Democratic Party was on 9.2 percent, said television stations CNN Turk and NTV. Turkey’s electoral authorities are not officially due to announce their first results until Monday, with final figures due later in the week, but Erdogan, 60, is expected to make a victory address later on Sunday.
In a tea house in the working-class Istanbul district of Tophane, men watching election coverage on television praised Erdogan as a pious man of the people who had boosted Turkey’s status both economically and on the international stage. “Erdogan is on the side of the underdog. He is the defender against injustice. While the Arab world was silent, he spoke out against Israel on Gaza,” said Murat, 42, a jeweller, who declined to give his family name. “This country was ruined by the old politicians. They lied to us. They caused economic crises, the PKK violence,” he said. Erdogan has opened a peace process with Kurdish PKK militants to end a conflict which has killed 40,000 people in 30 years. The voting turnout, which exceeded 89 percent in March local elections, appeared to be low, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly observer George Tsereteli told reporters. Opinion polls had put Erdogan, 60, far ahead of two rivals competing for a five-year term as president. Parliament has in the past chosen the head of state but this was changed under a law pushed through by Erdogan’s government. He has set his sights on serving two presidential terms, keeping him in power past 2023, the 100th anniversary of the secular republic. For a leader who refers frequently to Ottoman history in his speeches, the date has special significance.
“I am almost depressed. I worry for my country because I increasingly feel like an alien here. The prime minister is talking about a Turkey that I don’t recognise,” said Erkan Sonmez, 43, who works in an import-export business.
Moreover, the main opposition candidate in Turkey’s first presidential election congratulated Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday after results broadcast by Turkish media showed Erdogan had won. “I congratulate Mr Prime Minister and wish him success,” Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a brief statement to reporters in Istanbul.