Turkish presidential election: Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s opponent surrenders

He throws in the towel. Muharrem Ince, one of Turkey’s four presidential candidates on May 14, announced at a press conference on Thursday that he was withdrawing his candidacy. Leader of the Memleket (Fatherland) party, he has been credited with 2 to 4% of the vote in recent public opinion polls.

Several of his party’s leaders have resigned in recent days, fearing that Muharrem Ince’s candidacy would prevent Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who leads an alliance of six opposition parties, from defeating twenty-year-old President Erdogan. He also justified his decision to leave by stating that the opposition alliance would “put all the blame” on him if they lost.

Exit in favor of Erdogan’s opponent

Kemal Kilicdaroglu is in a good position against President Erdogan. The latest public opinion poll released on Thursday by the renowned Konda Institute showed that Kemal Kilicdaroglu won 49.3% of the vote in the first round against 43.7% for Recep Tayyip Erdogan and 2.2% for Muharrem Ince.

According to a Metropoll poll conducted in early April, Muharrem Ince’s resignation should benefit Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu more than the outgoing head of state. On Sunday, President Erdogan, 69, faces his most uncertain election since coming to power in 2003. More than 1.8 million Turks have already voted from abroad and at customs, according to Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Committee.