With 99.43% of the votes cast, the Electoral Council gave Erdoğan the victory with 52.14% of the vote. His opponent, Kamal Klişateroğlu, finished in the second round with 47.86% of the vote.
The final official results are expected to be announced early next week. However, Yener explains that with a margin of more than two million votes between the candidates, the remaining uncounted votes will not change the outcome.
Erdoğan had already declared victory even before it was confirmed by the Election Commission. “Our nation has entrusted us with the responsibility of governing the country for the next five years,” Erdogan said Sunday evening from a bus parked in front of his Istanbul residence.
“We completed the second round of presidential elections with the support of our people,” Erdogan said. “God willing, we will be worthy of your trust as we have been doing for the last 21 years,” he added.
“Goodbye, Kamal,” Erdoğan addressed to Kemal Kılıçateroğlu, the main opposition leader and his opponent in these elections. The Turkish president said the opposition Republican Party (CHP) should hold Kılıçdaroğlu responsible for his bad decision.
Assuring that “we will fulfill all the promises made to the people”, the Head of State emphasized that “every election is a rebirth”.
Erdogan then traveled to Ankara, where he delivered his official victory speech.
In front of a crowd gathered in front of the presidential palace, Recep Erdogan thanked every Turk for his vote in “the most important elections”.
“In one of the most important elections in our multi-party system, our country chose the century of Turkey,” he said. “It’s not just us who won, Turkey won. Our democracy won,” he underlined.
“There are no losers today. 85 million citizens have won today”, and promised to “build Turkey’s century”.
“The responsibility given to us is that we are not angry or resentful towards anyone. It is time to leave the controversies of the election campaign behind. Now is the time to unite around our national goals, our dreams and the goals we share”, he complained.
The Turkish president later criticized the opposition, whom he characterized as “terrorists”. “The losers are those who littered the platform, those who supported terrorists, the lone sharks,” he declared.
“Now is the time to work,” Erdogan told his supporters, declaring that “the priority is to rebuild the cities destroyed in the Feb. 6 earthquakes and help people find a better life.”
Erdogan pointed out that one of the most important issues is inflation, which is not difficult to solve.
“The most urgent issue in the coming days will be to address the problems arising from inflationary inflation and offset welfare losses,” the President said. “Inflation will also come down, you will see. They are [a oposição] Can’t compete with us,” he added.
In this second round of elections, the issue of refugees, which took place in the political dialogue of the two candidates, was not forgotten by Erdogan in his speech.
Turkey’s president announced a deal with Qatar to allow more than a million Syrian refugees to return to their home country.
“We made an agreement with Qatar for a new project in Syria. Through this project, we will build new houses there and more than one million Syrians will be able to return to their land,” Erdogan said.
Finally, Erdogan recalled that Monday marks the 570th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul by the Ottoman Empire. “It was a turning point in history, it ended a century and opened a new one. I believe these elections will also be a turning point in history”, he declared.
Erdogan’s opponent has been fiercely critical of the Turkish president, condemning his authoritarian rule and calling it “the most unfair election in years”.
In his speech on Sunday night, Kemal Kilicadaroglu expressed his “deep regret at the difficulties the country is facing” but vowed to continue his fight for democracy.
In a speech in Ankara, Kilistaroglu, who won 47.8% of the vote in the second round of the election, said the results showed the will of the people to replace and end the autocratic government. “We will be at the forefront of this struggle until true democracy comes to our country,” he added.
Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years, is serving a historic third term.
Despite the economic crisis, restrictions on freedoms and the still felt effects of February’s powerful earthquake, which left more than 50,000 dead, Turks have decided to keep their faith in Erdogan. Solving problems unlike your opponent. Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Erdogan promised further increases in the minimum wage, including a 45 percent raise for civil servants and a month of free natural gas for families.
The current president won the popular vote of most of the provinces hit by strong earthquakes in February with concrete promises. Erdoğan promised to build homes for the homeless within a year, and that people would pay half the cost of housing over the next 20 years.
On the other hand, Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the Republican Party (CHP, center-left and secular), who won 44.5% of the votes in the first round, emerged in this second round with a more radical and conservative posture in an attempt. To capture the ultra-nationalist vote.
Kilicadaroglu’s speech focused on anti-immigration policies that allegedly alienated voters. His promises, such as those related to the reconstruction of cities destroyed by earthquakes, seemed unrealistic to Turks, which also contributed to the loss of voters.
In this way, despite winning the first round with the promise of a transition to presidential rule – winning over many voters, namely students who want to end Erdogan’s authoritarian system – Kılıcedağrığlu was unable to overthrow Erdogan. Must be in power for at least five years.
Erdogan leads a presidential system while maintaining a vertical, nationalist leadership based on political Islam
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