Erdogan declares himself the winner of the presidential election

He thanks everyone who would have made it possible for him to govern for the next five years, Erdogan told cheering supporters in Istanbul on Sunday. He will be with his followers “to the grave”. In Ankara, motorcades already filled the streets with waving flags in the evening. Horn concerts could also be heard in Istanbul.

As in the election campaign, Erdogan agitated against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “My brothers, isn’t this CHP for LGBT?” he said, referring to Kilicdaroglu’s party. There is nothing like that in his own electoral alliance, according to Erdogan. He received a loud applause from the audience.

• ZIB 1: Erdogan is ahead when counting the votes

Although many votes had not yet been counted on Sunday evening, there was a clear trend. So far, Erdogan has received around 55.41 percent of the votes, said the head of the electoral authority, Ahmet Yener, on Sunday in Ankara after counting two-thirds of the votes. His challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu comes to 46.59 percent. According to the state news agency Anadolu, after counting almost 99 percent of the votes, the Turkish president came to 52 percent, Kilicdaroglu to 48 percent. The agency Anka, which is close to the opposition, recorded almost the same values.

According to the provisional figures from Anadolu, Erdogan was also clearly victorious in Austria – after almost 44 percent of the votes counted, almost 73 percent of the Turks living here voted for Erdogan. According to Anadolu, the turnout was around 85 percent and thus lower than in the first round with 87 percent.

• ZIB 1: ORF correspondent Katharina Wagner reports on the runoff election in Turkey and the emerging election result.

Viktor Orban was one of the first to congratulate Erdogan on his victory, also before the official election results were announced. The Hungarian Prime Minister tweeted about an “undisputed election victory”. Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbaiba had previously congratulated the Turkish head of state. “My dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan, congratulations on your victory,” Qatar’s head of state wrote on Twitter on Sunday. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has already sent Erdogan his congratulations.

The opposition did not comment on the results for the time being. Kilicdaroglu wanted to comment later in the evening. According to the electoral authorities, the day of the vote had passed quietly, but there had been several reports of violent incidents.

Erdogan has led Turkey for 20 years. Erdogan became prime minister in 2003 and then president in 2014. Since the introduction of a presidential system in 2018, he has more power than ever before. It is feared that he will govern even more authoritarian after the election. Turkey is a NATO member, maintains close ties with Russia and Ukraine, and is an actor in the Syrian civil war. Accordingly, the election was also followed internationally with great attention.

• ZIB 1: Erdogan has not lost an election since 2002

Against the background of a rampant economic crisis, the election was considered one of the greatest challenges of his political career. According to observers, the fact that the majority of voters voted for Erdogan despite the crises is also due to the government’s control over the media landscape. In an interview shortly before the election, Erdogan declared unquestioningly that economic problems were a myth of the opposition.

A total of around 64 million people were asked to vote, around 3.4 million of them abroad. According to preliminary figures, the alliance around the Turkish head of state was able to secure a majority in parliament on May 14, despite losses compared to 2018.

The key issues in the election campaign were migration, the ailing economy and high inflation. Erdogan lashed out against the opposition, accusing them of having ties to terrorists and targeting them for supporting gay, lesbian and queer people.

The opposition took office in a historically unique alliance of six parties. She promised a democratization of the country and a tough course against refugees. In all probability, however, that was not enough for a win.

• The live ticker for election day to read

The campaign was unfair. In addition to controlling the media, Erdogan was also able to draw on state resources. In the first ballot, which Erdogan won, there were reports of irregularities, but these did not change the outcome of the election.