live tape According to state media
A close race in Türkiye – Erdogan and his rival are heading to a run-off
And the Anatolia news agency reported, on Sunday evening, that Erdogan is leading after counting about 40 percent of the votes
What: AP
For the first time in 20 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan should worry: this time there is no clear candidate in Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections. According to state media, he is currently in the lead – but short of the required absolute majority. More in the live stream.
IThere may be a run-off in the race for the presidency in Türkiye. This was revealed by data from the official Anadolu news agency, on Sunday evening. Accordingly, the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was after nearly 91 percent of the ballot boxes were counted at 49.9 percent and thus less than the absolute majority. According to Anadolu Agency, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 44.4 percent.
The state agency usually publishes the results of the screening first in Erdogan’s strongholds. The largest opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), also accused Erdogan’s conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party of deliberately contesting the results in opposition strongholds. This makes the count slower and the result is initially in favor of the government.
According to Anatolia, Erdogan was clearly ahead at the start of the count, but his rival Kilicdaroglu managed to catch up in the evening. The pro-opposition news agency Anka reported that with almost all votes counted, Erdoğan had 49 percent and Kilicdaroglu 45 percent.
Current developments in the live broadcast tape:
10:02 PM – A cyber attack on a well-known daily newspaper in Türkiye
In the midst of the Turkish elections, one of the most popular daily newspapers has become the target of a cyberattack. The website of the widely circulated “Suzko” newspaper, which is attributed to the opposition camp, was not available on Sunday evening.
Netblocks, an organization known for monitoring internet blockages, cited a DDos attack on the newspaper’s servers as the cause. Attackers flood their victims’ servers with a flood of data requests in order to paralyze them.
Ahead of the historic presidential and parliamentary elections, observers warned of attacks on independent reporting in the country.
9:37 pm – Erdogan accuses the opposition of “stealing the national will”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the opposition’s statements during the ongoing vote-counting process as “theft of the national will”. The opposition candidate and Erdogan’s strongest rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, had previously stated that he was ahead.
21:04 – Left head: Election observers from Germany were banned from using
Left Party leader Janine Whistler said election observers from Germany were barred from working in Turkey. Whistler told AFP on Sunday that armed police officers prevented some observers from a left-wing delegation from entering polling stations. German observers deployed in the Kurdish regions in the east of the country reported the presence of a large number of armed police officers and soldiers.
Hakan Tas, an election observer on behalf of the left, explained that not only German election observers, but also independent Turkish election observers were denied access to polling stations. As a result, the police and army breached the agreement with the Election Commission, he told Agence France-Presse by phone. Tass added that the observers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors Turkey’s elections with a total of 400 experts, are hardly represented in the Kurdish regions.
4:00 pm. – Polling stations closed in Türkiye
Closing polling stations for the presidential and parliamentary elections. Almost 200,000 bars closed at 5pm local time (4pm CEST), and high footfall from many locations had previously been reported. The first results of the election, seen as a referendum on the future of longtime head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan, are expected in the early evening.
3 o’clock. – Erdogan arrived in Ankara
Contrary to expectations, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Ankara after the vote in Istanbul. The state-run Anadolu news agency reported that the president landed in the capital early Sunday afternoon. Erdogan said at noon that he would follow the results of the parliamentary and presidential elections from Istanbul.
2:55 pm –Elections Authority: So far there are no problems with Türkiye’s elections
According to the electoral authority, the elections took place in the early afternoon without major incident. According to Anadolu Agency, the head of the Supreme Elections Council’s election committee said, “So far, the elections have passed without any problems.” The pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) confirmed a media report that election observers from sister party YSP were attacked in the southeastern Turkish town of Mardin. The dispute erupted after observers prevented more than one family member from accessing the polling booth.
A deputy from the Republican People’s Party Share a video, which is said to show how rows of ballot papers belonging to President Erdogan were stamped in Sanliurfa in southeastern Turkey. It was not possible to verify the time and place of registration, or whether the ballots were real.
Max Lax, a Green Party politician and election observer for the Council of Europe, said the situation in the Kurdish city of Diyarbakir was calm. Never before has he experienced the city as “quiet and peaceful” as this weekend. Our report on Monday will indicate whether that sentiment is also reflected in the election observation results.
