Young voters say they will flee the country if Erdogan wins, with polls on a knife edge
“It’s a big day for us. It’s the first day of the rest of our lives,” says Berfe, a student at Boğaziçi University, as they cast their vote alongside a group of friends at a primary school on the outskirts of Istanbul.
The 23-year-old is one of millions of voters in Turkey who are participating in momentous parliamentary and presidential elections that could see President Recep Tayyip Erdogan forced out after two decades in power.
Berfe and their friends, all in their twenties, say they voted for Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the main opposition candidate and leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), who has gathered together a coalition of six parties to try to end Mr Erdogan’s increasingly autocratic rule.
Young people could be the ones to sway the outcome towards Kılıçdaroğlu, with around five million first-time voters eligible to cast their vote in this election.
The 74-year-old, a retired civil servant, has promised the country’s youth freedom, democracy and improved job prospects.
“He led a good campaign,” says Berfe. “He was very loving – it’s a powerful thing, because AKP [Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party] is very violent and does a lot of hate speech.”
They did add that they would like Mr Kılıçdaroğlu to be more supportive of LGBTQ rights – and they didn’t agree with his anti-refugee rhetoric.
“We want to be able to talk about our ideas and be free to criticise our leader,” says 25-year-old Irem, another student, drinking tea at a nearby café after voting.
There was a hopeful mood amongst the friends, but they also said they felt nervous about potential violence later today from supporters of Mr Erdogan’s AKP party.
“We feel vulnerable – everyone is angry and anxious,” says Halil, 25, a graduate from Izmir. He adds that if Mr Kılıçdaroğlu wins and the election result is not accepted, as some fear will happen, then he will go out to the streets “to defend my democracy”.
The faltering economy and rising living costs are among the key concerns for them and for a lot of young people across Turkey. Berfe said their rent had doubled in the last few months.
On average, rent is about 15,000 Turkish lira, they say, while the minimum wage is 8,500 Turkish lira. “It is like a bad joke,” says Aylin, 24.
“I have been jobless for one year,” says Halil, adding that he has sent out 70 job applications in the last year, but has not received any offers. “It is the same for everyone.”
“Even if you go to a prestigious university it doesn’t guarantee a good job afterwards – you need to be from AKP to get a good salary,” says Berfe.
All of them said that if Mr Erdogan wins they will try to leave Turkey by the end of the year. “There will be no hope for us [if he wins],” says Halil.
Not everyone they know share their views. Halil’s parents have voted for the incumbent and AKP as they are “very conservative”.
Irem says her family are also conservative and have voted for him in the past, but they aren’t voting for him in this election because they want the economy to improve. “They’ve realised that people can’t buy anything at the market any more,” she says, as the call to prayer rings out.
Polls before the elections began showed the two main candidates neck and neck, with Mr Kılıçdaroğlu edging just ahead in several.
To win the presidency in the first round, a candidate must obtain more than 50 per cent of ballots cast. If no candidate secures more than half the votes, a run-off will be held on 28 May between the two leading candidates. The first results are expected around midnight local time.
If the opposition win, the group of friends say they would like to go out on to the streets to celebrate – but Mr Kılıçdaroğlu has warned people not to, saying it could be dangerous. “So we will celebrate at home, when – not if – they win,” says Berfe, smiling.
Sunday’s vote has been described as one of the most consequential elections in Turkey’s 100-year history, a contest that could end President Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year reign and reverberate well beyond Turkey’s borders.
The presidential vote will decide not only who leads Turkey, a Nato-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis, and the shape of its foreign policy.
Opinion polls have given Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads a six-party alliance, a slight lead, with two polls on Friday showing him above the 50 per cent threshold needed to win outright.
Reporting of results before 9pm is not permitted, so the first indications of the outcome may not emerge until late evening.
The results will be intently watched in Western capitals, the Middle East, and Moscow.
