Live Blog: Turkish Presidential Run-off 2023
- More than 60 million Turkish citizens are eligible to vote on Sunday in 87 election districts. Turkey's large diaspora of 3.5 million voters already finished voting in diplomatic missions on May 24.
- Voters ready to decide on renewing another five-year mandate for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has been ruling the country for21 years.
- In May 14 elections, Erdogan's People's Alliance secured a comfortable majority in parliament and Erdogan himself received 49.5 per cent of the total vote in the presidential race.
- The joint opposition candidate Kilicdaroglu, from the Republican People's Party, CHP, won 44.8 per cent of the vote in the first round, leaving his supporters disappointed.
- The ultra-nationalist and anti-migrant ATA Alliance and its presidential candidate, Sinan Ogan, received a surprising 2.43 per cent and 5.17 per cent of total votes respectively on May 14, becoming the kingmakers in the second round of the presidential race.
- Recognising the importance of nationalist votes, Kilicdaroglu opted a new nationalistic and anti-migrant discourse. But experts doubt Kilicdaroglu's abrupt change of focus will bring him victory, and the turnout may be low in eastern and southeastern Turkey, which is mainly populated by ethnic Kurds.
- Ogan and his political allies parted ways after May 14 due to a disagreement on which candidate they should support in the second round. Ogan himself is supporting Erdogan in the second round but other parties in the ATA Alliance have declared support for Kilicdaroglu.
- Bucking election polls' predictions, Kilicdaroglu and his Nation Alliance ended the first round of presidential elections and general elections on May 14 behind Erdogan and his alliance.
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