Turkey Elections 2023:The Turkish presidential election is headed for a run-off vote. Neither of the candidates got more than 50 percent of the vote.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got 49.5 percent of the votes, while his challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, got 44.89 percent, the Turkish Supreme Election Council announced.
Voting In Turkey
In July 2018, a month after Erdogan became president, Turkey transitioned from a parliamentary to a presidential system, abolishing the post of PM.
There were three presidential candidates in the Turkey Elections 2023: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and Sinan Ogan.
Electoral Changes
These amendments changed the way seats were distributed among the member parties of an alliance.
Before this, the parliamentary seats were allocated according to the total number of votes mustered by an alliance through common candidate lists.
With these changes, the seats were allocated according to the votes that each party received individually.
Main candidates
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party, known as AK Party)
The current president has had 20 years in power, nine of these 20 as President. He was Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Seeking a 3rd consecutive presidential term in May 14 elections. The voters worrying about the economy and earthquake damage might be one of the biggest problems that he could face in this election.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
Cumhuriyet Halk Partesi (CHP, known as Republican People’s Party)
Has led the CHP for more than 10 years. Before entering politics, he was a finance ministry specialist and then the chairman of the Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s. He promises to bring Turkey back to a strong parliamentary system.
Run-off
No candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, pushing Turkey into a 2nd round.
Neither secured more than 50 percent of the vote, so the top two candidates will face off in a second round on May 28, 2023.
This is only the third time that Turks directly voted for a President, Erdogan won both previous elections in the first round.