The Turkish opposition denounces an electoral “manipulation” and proclaims itself the winner

The Social Democrat CHP, the main Turkish opposition party, has denounced that in the presidential elections this Sunday, May 14, there has been a “manipulation” in the dissemination of the results and has affirmed that its candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, has won the current head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“There are 7.5 million votes that have not entered the system. They come from places where we are strongest. They manipulate the results and leave people all night in front of the television”, declared the mayor of Istanbul and candidate for the vice-presidency of the country, Ekrem Imamoglu.

“We believe that the whole nation will see how Kiliçdaroglu will lead (the count) in the morning”, he insisted.

According to the official Anadolu agency, Erdogan wins the elections with 49.7% of the votes, five points more than the opposition candidate, when 93% of the ballot boxes have already been counted. Erdogan would thus have lost the absolute majority with which he became president in 2014 and which he renewed in 2018, and would now have to defend his position against Kiliçdaroglu in a second round in two weeks.

The opposition leader accused Anadolu of delaying the publication of count data to hide that Erdogan had lost the absolute majority, so it will be necessary to hold a second round in two weeks.

“We do not trust the AKP system (Erdogan’s party). We don’t trust Anadolu”, pointed out the mayor, whose electoral victory was contested by the AKP in 2019, forcing a repetition that he won again with a much greater margin.

For his part, the mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavas, also a social democrat, stated that, according to the data available Kiliçdaroglu, would have 47.7% of the votes, two points more than Erdogan. “The probability of a runoff is high, but our president can still win in the first round“, he claimed.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.