Erdoğan was close to achieving it, but was left with 49.42 percent of the tickets deposited, while Kilicdaroglu, who presented himself as one candidate out of six political formations, scored 44.88 points in popular preference, according to local television.
This outcome has been the expectation of many pollsters and analyst groups in this capital city, which on very few occasions have dared to give a score capable of putting one of the three presidential candidates above 50 percent.
The data indicates, after counting 99.21 percent of the votes, a new appointment at the polls on the 28th of this month between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu, which was much higher than the 5.3 points achieved by the nationalist Sinan Ogan.
In the parliamentary elections, also held on this day, Erdogan’s ruling party, the Justice and Development Party, Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party, and the ancestral alliance led by Ögan presented more chances.
Opinion polls at the time were contradictory regarding the ruling party’s chances of retaining a majority, although analysts acknowledged that the winning political formation would have a decisive impact on the results of the presidential run-off.
In the case of the 28th Legislature, which has 600 seats, it will have proportional representation based on the results of the 87 constituencies. In this dispute, 24 party lists and 151 independent candidates were put forward.
To get to the TNC, political formations must cross the seven-point barrier.
Erdogan faced the repercussions of the recent and devastating earthquake that struck more than three million people, and swelled by more than 30 percent, facing the challenge of pulling the country out of a serious economic crisis and winning the polls.
For his part, Kilicdaroglu enjoys the full support of the West, to whom many of his proposals are directed regarding his country’s relations with Russia, which he promises to review with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, with plans to improve them.
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