In the presidential elections in Turkey, which took place on Sunday, May 14, none of the candidates passed the threshold of 50% of the votes needed to win in the first round. The state-run Turkish television channel TRT, citing the results of counting 100% of the ballots, shows that the current head of state, Recep Erdogan, has 49.35% of the vote. His main opponent is Kemal Kylychdaroglu, a candidate from the six-party opposition association "National Alliance" - 45%.
Thus, the winner will be determined in the second round on May 28. This development of events was predicted before the elections.
Both candidates have already commented on the preliminary results.
Addressing a rally of his supporters outside the central office of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara, Erdogan said he still believed in the possibility of winning the first round, but if the will of the people decided to hold a second round, he would not object.
His rival, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said he was confident of victory in the second round.
"If the second round is announced, we will definitely win. The will to change in society is more than 50 percent," the politician said, the Russian service of the BBC reports.
The third candidate in the elections, a representative of the political bloc "Alliance ATA" ("Alliance of the Ancestors") Sinan Oga, who received more than 5% of the votes, promised to decide soon which of the rivals to support in the second round.
The day before, after the polls closed at 5 p.m. local time, state media showed Erdogan's lead at over 50% for several hours.
At the same time, Kılıçdaroğlu claimed throughout the evening that his National Republican Party's own calculations show his leadership, not Erdoğan's. The opposition sharply criticizes the data on the results of the vote, which are given to "Anadolu", calling them "unreliable".
The current presidential vote is being called the most intense for Erdogan in his more than 20 years in power as president and head of government. Most pre-election polls showed a slight advantage for the opposition candidate.