Runoff increasingly likely despite Erdogan claiming he can win outright
Turkey appears to be headed towards a runoff in the election despite President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claiming he can still win outright.
Neither Mr Erdoğan nor his main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, appear likely to reach the 50 per cent threshold needed to win the election.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has said Mr Erdoğan has 49.49 per cent of the vote, while Mr Kılıçdaroğlu is tailing behind with 44.79 per cent.
But as nearly all the votes have been counted, there could be a second vote in two weeks if neither candidate reaches 50 per cent.
Mr Erdoğan told his AK Party supporters that he is prepared for a runoff if necessary but believes he can still win outright.
Meanwhile, Mr Kılıçdaroğlu vowed to win the second round, saying the President has failed to win support from the people.
This is the fiercest competition Mr Erdoğan has seen during his two decades in power, after opinion surveys suggested the public has become disgruntled with soaring inflation and his slow response to devastating earthquakes.
Voting appears to have been affected by deadly earthquakes which rocked the country in February, with eight of the 11 badly hit cities AK Party strongholds.
More than 50,000 died when two earthquakes hit in quick succession, leaving millions homeless.
The Government has been criticised for failing to respond quickly enough, with Mr Erdoğan’s share of the vote decreasing by 2 to 3 per cent in five of those cities.
His support remained the same in the other cities compared with the 2018 presidential election.
Pre-election polls suggested the incumbent could lose out to Mr Kılıçdaroğlu but Mr Erdoğan’s Islamic-rooted alliance has picked up more of the vote than expected.
The vote will either win Mr Erdoğan another five-year stint in office or set the Nato member country on a more democratic path with the center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Voter turnout in Turkey is traditionally strong and there are more than 64 million people, including 3.4 million overseas voters, who were eligible to vote. Polling began at 5am GMT and closed at 2pm GMT.
