Turks have started voting in one of the most consequential elections in modern Turkey’s 100-year history – an election that could unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after 20 years in power, reported The Guardian.
Opinion polls give Erdoğan’s main challenger, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who heads an alliance of six opposition parties, a slight lead, but if either of them fails to get more than 50% of the vote there will be a runoff election on 28 May.
The election takes place three months after earthquakes in southeast Turkey killed more than 50,000 people. Many in the affected provinces have expressed anger over the slow initial government response but there is little evidence that the issue has changed how people will vote.
Polls opened at 8am local time and will close at 5pm. Under Turkish election law, the reporting of any results is banned until 9pm. By late on Sunday there could be a good indication of whether there will be a runoff for the presidency.
Kurdish voters, who account for 15-20% of the electorate, will play a pivotal role, with the Nation Alliance unlikely to attain a parliamentary majority by itself.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic party (HDP) is not part of the main opposition alliance but fiercely opposes Erdoğan after a crackdown on its members in recent years.
Erdoğan, 69, is a powerful orator and master campaigner who has pulled out all the stops on the campaign trail as he battles to survive his toughest political test. He commands fierce loyalty from pious Turks who once felt disfranchised in secular Turkey and his political career has survived an attempted coup in 2016.
Kılıçdaroğlu, a 74-year-old former civil servant, promises that if he wins he will return to orthodox economic policies from Erdogan’s heavy management.