Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been elected as the first executive president of Turkey under the new presidential system. His party’s alliance with far-right Nationalist Movement MHP, the People’s Alliance, secured him the victory already in the first round of presidential elections. The same alliance of Islamists and Ultra-nationalists secures him also a majority of seats in parliamentary elections.
On Monday morning, Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won an absolute majority in the first round of presidential election.
By 99.2 percent of the ballot boxes to have been opened
- Erdogan is leading with 52.5 percent of the votes
- his major rival Muharrem Ince lags behind at 30.7 percent.
Along with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Justice and Development (AK) Party’s election ally, the People’s Alliance, has won 53.6 percent of the votes as 99.1 percent of the boxes have been opened so far in parliamentary votes.
The remaining uncounted votes will not affect election results, YSK said.
Presidential Elections
Recep Tayyip Erdogan 52.5% supported by AKP, MHP and 2 small parties
Muharrem Ince 30.7% supported by CHP
Selahattin Demirtas 8.4% supported by Kurdish population
Meral Aksener 7.3% supported by new far-right IYI party.
Parliamentary Elections
AKP 42.5% – 293 seats
CHP 22.7% – 146
HDP (Kurdish)11.1% – 67
MHP 11.1% – 50
IYI (far-right) 10% – 44
Other small parties received a total of 2.2% did not managed to pass the threshold of 10% and enter the 600-seat Palriament.
AKP seems to lose the absolute majority due to entrance of HDP in the Parliament. AKP had 317 seats after the parliamentary elections in November 2015. However, Erdogan’s party will still be able to rule with the loyal support of ultra-nationalist ally MHP.
Results Controversy
For several hours after the polling stations closed at 5 p.m. on Sunday, main opposition CHP insisted of irregularities in the counting of the votes and the published results. However, around midnight, it became clear that Erdogan was the winner and rival Ince the loser.
Maybe it was this controversy that had Erdogan keep his victory speech short and stressed that that his victory was based on unofficial results.
“Democracy is the winner of Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections,” Erdogan said early Monday.
Addressing the nation from the balcony of Justice and Development (AK) Party headquarters in capital Ankara, Erdogan said every one of the 81 million Turkish citizens is a winner.
“Winners of June 24 elections are Turkey, Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed in the world,” he said.
Ince is scheduled to address the nation Monday noon and accept the presidential elections results. The official results are expected on Friday.
MHP victory raises concerns
Results, however, still raise some concerns, especially with regards to the victory of MHP and Bahceli, the ultra-nationlist, racist, panturkic and eurosceptic movement whose paramilitary wing Grey Wolves were famous for links to the deep state.
Several analysts and election observers note that the party had hardly held pre-election rallies. MHP had lost part of its officials and supporters when Meral Aksener left once the snap elections were declared and established her own IYI party, to challenge Erdogan. And yet, the MHP managed to increase its parliamentary representation from 39 to 50 MPs.
- Bazaar bargain between Gentlemen? Who says Erdogan did not agree to hand over some constituencies to his elections partner Bahceli and MHP in order to have a strong ally in the parliament?
Election results in the big cities like in Istanbul also puzzle analysts with some claiming “numbers do not add up” and “make no sense.”
On Sunday, there were several reports about irregularities and violations of elections laws mainly in the Kurdish-dominant areas.
Elections observers from OECD are scheduled to hold a press conference at 3 p.m. local time Monday.
Leaders congratulate
Several leaders called to congratulate Erdogan, with the first European being Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Russian President, Vladimir Putin, called him on Monday morning.
The first to congratulate Erdogan as “the president of the Ummah,” the Muslim community, though, were Pakistanis on social media.
PS in the end of the elections, we see that Erdogan has the support of around 42% of the Turkish people, while the secularists of CHP have the support of hardly 1/3 of the population. Erdogan has the support of the broad masses who now hope he will fix the economic crisis. It is money that rules, shortages in democracy do not seem to matter.
