Turkey election results updates: Erdogan declared run-off winner

Now touching upon a central theme of the elections, Erdogan says that the most urgent issue in the country is currently inflation, adding that it is not difficult to solve the problem.

“The most urgent issue of the coming days is to eliminate the problems arising from the price increases caused by inflation and to compensate for welfare losses,” the president said.

He added: “If we do it, we will do it. The interest rate is 8.5 … Inflation will also come down. You will see.

“They [the opposition] cannot compete with us. They will stand guard at the door of the IMF.”

Erdogan said in Ankara that his government will allocate all its time and energy to producing results after the polls.

He added that healing the wounds of the February earthquakes, rebuilding Turkey’s destroyed cities and connecting its people to life will continue to be the country’s priorities.

“Our hearts and hands will continue to be on the earthquake region,” Erdogan said.

President Erdogan has ruled out the release of the former co-leader of the pro-Kurdish HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, from prison.

“It is not possible for such a thing to happen … In our government, justice is the foundation of property. This cannot be changed.” Erdogan said.

Demirtas, who faces various “terror” charges, has been in prison since 2016, although he ran for president in 2018.

The HDP backed Kilicdaroglu against Erdogan this time around, leading to large support for the CHP leader in eastern Turkey, which is largely Kurdish.

Erdogan has framed Kilicdaroglu’s ties to the HDP as evidence of support from “terrorists” – as he links the HDP to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that has fought the Turkish state since 1984.

Erdogan has said in Ankara that the election result “has a place above our heads”, using a Turkish phrase to indicate respect for the result. He added: “We are not the only winners. The winner is Turkey. The winner is our democracy.”

The president also said that “terrorist organisations” lost and all 85 million citizens of the country have won.

Playing on the theme of the ‘century of Turkey’ mentioned earlier, Erdogan says that his supporters will build Turkey’s future together.

“We walked this road together. We walked day and night, and you gave this duty to us again. God willing, we will continue to build and rejuvenate the ‘century of Turkey’ together.”

“How can it be possible not to love this nation?” Erdogan asks his supporters as he begins his address to the crowds gathered at the presidential palace.

US President Joe Biden is the latest world leader to congratulate Erdogan on the election win. The United States and Turkey have had a rocky relationship over the last few years, with significant differences over Syria and Turkey’s purchase of a missile system from Russia, although tensions have since eased.

Congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Türkiye on his re-election.

I look forward to continuing to work together as NATO Allies on bilateral issues and shared global challenges.

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 28, 2023

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Istanbul, has said that in the last couple of years, Turkey has been in the process of “rapprochement” with countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – nations that had previously had poor relations with Ankara following the Arab Spring.

“We are expecting … Erdogan to be much more keen to have a rapprochement with them,” Serdar said.

“And with Damascus even, just before the elections, we have seen direct meetings between the foreign minister of Turkey and Syria; these were the highest level meetings since the start of the Syrian crisis.”

Turkey has troops in Syria and has supported the Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

President Erdogan has now arrived in Ankara, where his supporters have gathered by the thousands in front of the presidential palace, waiting for the leader to speak.

This is Erdogan’s traditional “balcony” speech, which he gives after election wins. But while this address normally comes from his personal residence in Istanbul, Erdogan appears to have chosen to give it from Ankara this year.

As he arrived in Ankara, Erdogan sent out a tweet referencing the symbolism of the current year – the 100-year anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

“Let the Turk[ish] century begin,” he declared.

Büyük Türkiye Zaferi ile…

BAŞLASIN TÜRKİYE YÜZYILI! 🇹🇷

— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) May 28, 2023

Several world leaders have now come out to congratulate Erdogan:

Brazil

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wished Erdogan a “good term with a lot of work” for the Turkish people.

Lula wrote on Twitter that Erdogan can “count on Brazil’s partnership in global cooperation for peace, in the fight against poverty and for the development of the world”.

France

French President Emmanuel Macron said France and Turkey “will continue to move forward”.

La France et la Turquie ont d'immenses défis à relever ensemble. Retour de la paix en Europe, avenir de notre Alliance euro-atlantique, mer Méditerranée. Avec le Président Erdogan, que je félicite pour sa réélection, nous continuerons à avancer.

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 28, 2023

“France and Turkey have huge challenges to face together. Return of peace to Europe, future of our Euro-Atlantic Alliance, Mediterranean Sea. With President Erdogan, whom I congratulate on his re-election, we will continue to move forward,” Macron wrote on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi King Salman congratulated Erdogan on his presidential win, according to the state news agency.

Sweden

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson extended his congratulations via Twitter, stressing that the two countries’ security “is a future priority”. Turkey has blocked Sweden’s ascession to NATO – and the continued Swedish effort to secure membership is likely to be one of the main issues in Erdogan’s foreign policy agenda.

Congratulations @RTErdogan on your re-election. Our common security is a future priority.

— SwedishPM (@SwedishPM) May 28, 2023

Read more reactions here.

Taking a closer look at the unofficial results, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to score a very similar percentage of votes in Sunday’s election compared with the 2018 presidential polls.

Anadolu Agency has Erdogan winning 52.2 percent of the vote, despite a painful cost-of-living crisis in the country and twin earthquakes that killed tens of thousands of people in February.

The opposition had believed that the problems Erdogan faced would be enough to finally unseat him, but that was not to be.

Erdogan received 52.6 of the votes in the June 2018 presidential election, competing against five other candidates on the ballot.

The opposition can point to the fact that they took Erdogan to a second round this time, unlike in 2018.

The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been re-elected as Turkey’s president in Sunday’s run-off vote, according to unofficial results.

Ahmet Yener said that Erdogan had received 52.1 percent of votes and Kemal Kilicdaroglu scored 47.9 percent with almost all ballots counted.

Turkey’s opposition nationalist IYI Party leader Meral Aksener has congratulated Erdogan for his victory in the run-off presidential vote, while saying she would continue on her path in the opposition.

The first major opposition figure to declare Erdogan the winner of the election, Aksener said the results showed that there was a big lesson Erdogan needed to learn, and added that she hoped Erdogan would act as the president of all Turks.

Aksener expressed disappointment in Erdogan’s victory speech in Istanbul, in which he sharply criticised opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Hakan Akbas, senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group, has explained how Erdogan managed to defy the odds and win the election.

“He has this successful campaign that he has repeatedly used to win 11 elections consecutively. I think a big part of it is Erdogan’s cult-like personality; he’s a great orator and his messages are simple, yet inspire confidence in his electorate,” Akbas told Al Jazeera.

“He’s been in power for all 20 years; he’s a seasoned, skillful politician. Secondly, he is a political genius in the sense that he was able to engineer political alliances that really created synergies for his bottom line – for his victory – unlike the opposition that really didn’t benefit, if anything it suffered.”

More from Kilicdaroglu’s speech – the presidential challenger and opposition leader expressed “real sadness” about the country’s future, after a campaign that had sought to present a positive outlook for Turkey.

“My real sadness is about the difficulties awaiting the country,” Kilicdaroglu said, without formally conceding defeat.

There will be many questions over Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s future, but the presidential candidate has said that he will continue what he termed his struggle for democracy and asked his supporters to continue as well.

Kilicdaroglu called Turkey’s recent election process the most unfair in years.

“All the means of the state were mobilised for one political party and laid at the feet of one man,” the Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader said.

He added: “I would like to thank the heads of the Nation Alliance, their organisations, our voters, and the citizens who protected the ballot boxes and fought against these immoral and unlawful pressures.”

“As a person of this land, I have always fought for your rights and justice, so that no one oppresses you, so that you can live in abundance, and I will continue to do so,” Kilicdaroglu also said.

The CHP leader said “the will of the people to change the authoritarian regime has emerged despite all pressures”.

“We will continue to be at the forefront of this struggle until true democracy comes to our country,” he pledged.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Erdogan, saying his victory is evidence that the Turkish people appreciated Erdogan’s selfless work and independent foreign policy.

“The election victory was a natural result of your selfless work as the head of the Republic of Turkey, clear evidence of the support of the Turkish people for your efforts to strengthen state sovereignty and conduct an independent foreign policy,” Putin said in a message to Erdogan, the Kremlin said.

“We highly appreciate your personal contribution to the strengthening of friendly Russian-Turkish relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas,” Putin said.

In his first comments since the polls had closed, Kilicdaroglu urged supporters to continue what he called the struggle for democracy in Turkey.

He added that the election had shown the Turkish people’s will to change an “authoritarian” government.

A prominent mayor from Kilicdaroglu’s main opposition party has urged the presidential challenger to resign and be replaced as head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) by Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

“We thank Mr Kilicdaroglu for his efforts … but he was misled, especially in the first round, by 3-5 losers … who put their own interests ahead of the interests of the country,” said the mayor of Bolu province, Tanju Ozcan.

“My historic call! Mr Imamoglu must immediately become the head of the CHP – Period!” he added.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the “triumph” of “brother and friend”, Erdogan.

Hakan Akbas, senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group, says it is a “historic night for the Turkish public and for President Erdogan himself.

“He won his 11th victory … and he kept campaigning ‘the right person, at the right time’, and he indeed emerged as the winner,” Akbas told Al Jazeera.

“But the difference is only over two-million votes, which means the country is still divided in half, and part of it has to do with the long and polarising campaign season for both parties.

“I think he’s got a historical opportunity in front of him to be able to show that he can also govern both sides and then unite the country and continue with an inclusive agenda that will fix the economy, that will set the stage for the next chapter of foreign policy, as well as looking at potential constitutional changes in parliament.”

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has congratulated Erdogan on his re-election, calling it “a sign of [the] continued valuable trust of [the] Turkish people”.

Erdogan, speaking in the Uskudar district of Istanbul, has said Turkey was the only winner of the elections.

With this victory, the door of the “century of Turkey” has opened, he said, adding that the election results have shown once again that no one can covet what he termed the country’s gains.

The president also said that the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will hold Kilicdaroglu accountable for its bad results, adding that the number of CHP seats in parliament had decreased compared to previous polls.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has congratulated Erdogan and the Turkish people for their election victory.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has congratulated Erdogan in a phone call, inviting him to pay a visit to Baku.

Erdogan, addressing his supporters in Istanbul, has thanked “each and every member of the nation who once again conveyed to us the responsibility for governing Turkey for the next five years.”

“We have completed the second round of the presidential elections with the favour of our people,” Erdogan said, expressing his gratitude to the nation.

He thanked the Turkish public for the “democracy festival” the country experienced during the election.

“God willing, we will be worthy of your trust as we have been for the last 21 years,” the president said.

He added that all 85 million citizens of the country are the “victors” of the two elections on May 14 and May 28.

“We have completed the second round of the presidential election with the favour of our nation,” Erdogan told his cheering supporters from atop a bus in his home district in Istanbul.

“We will be ruling the country for the coming five years,” he added.

“God willing, we will be deserving of your trust.”

Hakan Akbas, senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group, says Erdogan will likely have to be “more inclusive” following his win because the difference in the margin of victory was not as big as the ruling AK Party would have liked it to be.

“This is a very polarised country – about 50/50. The closer [the margin of victory] is to the number 52-48, the more Erdogan will need to be inclusive. Meaning that he will need to more likely draw alliances with the opposition in the parliament to go for constitutional changes going forward,” Akbas told Al Jazeera.

“There was definitely a stark warning to him. His numbers compared to 2018 have gone down. That had to do with the economy, which means that with these closed numbers, the economy may have cost him the difference between now and 2018, which may [make him consider] going back to more orthodox policies.

“He may consider increasing interest rates, he may appoint more market-friendly faces that will build credibility with the investors. He may seek to appoint more independent leaders for critical institutions, like the central bank.”

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has congratulated Erdogan and the Turkish people for their election victory.

Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics for 20 years, and he is now set to serve another five-year term.

Read more about Erdogan’s political rise here.

We’re still waiting for official confirmation of Erdogan’s victory, of course. The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has said that President Erdogan is currently leading the presidential race with 53.4 percent of the vote, and that 75.4 percent of the ballots boxes have been counted, according to official preliminary results.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh has also sent in his congratulations. Dbeibeh said that Erdogan’s election victory was a renewal of the Turkish people’s confidence in the president’s successful projects and policies. Dbeibeh’s Tripoli-based Government of National Unity is backed by Turkey against an eastern-based rival government.

Erdogan has won re-election, according to unofficial results from the state-run Anadolu Agency.

With 97 percent of ballot boxes opened in the run-off, Erdogan has 52.1 percent of the vote, and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 47.9 percent.

Read more here.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has congratulated Erdogan “on his unquestionable election victory”.

Congratulations to President @RTErdogan on his unquestionable election victory! Tebrikler, Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı! pic.twitter.com/I1IR7g3EWe

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) May 28, 2023

The emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has congratulated Erdogan, wishing the Turkish president “success for [his] new term”.

“My dear brother, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, congratulations on your victory,” he tweeted.

أخي العزيز رجب طيب أردوغان مبارك لكم الفوز، وأتمنى لك التوفيق في ولايتك الجديدة، وأن تحقق فيها ما يطمح له الشعب التركي الشقيق من تقدم ورخاء، ولعلاقات بلدينا القوية مزيداً من التطور والنماء.

— تميم بن حمد (@TamimBinHamad) May 28, 2023

The official results have not yet been announced.

Latest unofficial results, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency:

Erdogan: 52.3 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 47.7 percent
Ballot boxes opened: 96 percent

The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council has said that President Erdogan is leading the presidential race with 54.5 percent of the vote, and that 54.6 percent of the ballots boxes have been counted, according to official results.

The spokesperson for Kilicdaroglu’s party has called on people to embrace the ballot boxes, adding that they will continue to share accurate information with the public moment by moment.

“As of now, we seem to have received the votes of one out of every two people,” Faik Oztrak said at the Republican People’s Party (CHP) headquarters in the capital Ankara.

The spokesperson for the ruling AK Party says the results show strong support for Erdogan.

Figures published by the opposition ANKA news agency now show Erdogan in the lead with 50.06 percent of the votes vs Kilicdaroglu’s 49.4 percent and 88.8 percent of ballot boxes opened. ANKA had previously had Kilicdaroglu marginally in the lead, but that has now evaporated.

Latest unofficial results, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency:

Erdogan: 53.4 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 46.6 percent
Ballot boxes opened: 82.6 percent

Separate data published by the opposition ANKA news agency shows Kilicdaroglu leading with 50.02 percent vs Erdogan with 49.98 percent and 83.9 percent of ballot boxes opened.

According to the state-run Anadolu Agency, the voter turnout is at 85.24 percent.

Seda Demiralp, professor of political science at Istanbul’s Isik University, tells Al Jazeera that the vote gap between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu will likely narrow in the coming hours as more results come in.

“The gap is low, lower than expected, considering it’s [according to state news agency] Anadolu Agency, and also there are other sources that give more knife-edge results. I would say this is a more optimistic scenario to the opposition because many were fearing in the opposition that Erdogan would win with a landslide victory,” Demiralp said.

“It looks like the gap can be closed in the upcoming hours. That’s what we saw in the previous round. That’s what we saw in [the] 2018 elections. Typically we see Anadolu Agency starting … votes [for the incumbent] with a much higher rate and the margin closes over the next hours. So we may expect a similar change and a closing of the gap.”

Latest unofficial results, according to state-run Anadolu Agency:

Erdogan: 54.8 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 45.2 percent
Ballot boxes opened: 66.7 percent

Latest unofficial results, according to state-run Anadolu Agency:

Erdogan: 55.3 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 44.7 percent
Ballot boxes opened: 61.4 percent

Preliminary partial results show Erdogan in the lead with 55.1 percent of the ballot boxes opened.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency says the president leads the race with 55.8 percent of the votes counted so far, and his opponent, Kilicdaroglu, stands at 44.2 percent.

Preliminary partial results show Erdogan in the lead with 42.8 percent of the ballot boxes opened.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency says the incumbent leads with 57.1 percent of the vote so far as his opponent Kilicdaroglu stands at 42.9 percent.

The Supreme Election Council has lifted its ban on broadcasting election results as of 18:15pm (15:15 GMT).

Ahmet Yener, president of the Supreme Election Council of Turkey, says the vote was not marred by any allegations of spurious or fraudulent play.

“So far, there has not been any negative situation that has been reflected to our board and that has impacted the voting process,” he told reporters. “Objections to our board during the [voting] process were also evaluated and sent to the relevant provincial and district election boards.”

He also thanked “voters, presidential candidates, representatives, political parties, … all officials working at the ballot boxes and the relevant ministries, public institutions and organisations, non-governmental organisations, security officers … and, you, our esteemed members of the press, who have followed the process with us from the beginning.

“I wish the best for our Turkish nation and democracy.”

Under two decades of AK Party rule, there has been a shift for Turkey towards looking at the Middle East. Answering the question as to how much is at stake now, Hakan Akbas, senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group, told Al Jazeera:

“[President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan has been pursuing a very confident, assertive foreign policy based on neo-Ottoman nationalism and also he’s been trying to unite all the Muslims in the region. What started as the Arab Spring some time ago really bettered all the relations with Turkey with the likes of Saudis, Emiratis and especially Egypt and Israel,” Akbas said.

“However, in the last two years, we’ve been seeing a 180-degree shift towards more pragmatic, more win-win-based relations. I think he’s been patching relations with the Saudis, with Israel also with UAE; relations with Qatar have always been on good terms, and even Egypt and Turkey relations have been getting better.

“Erdogan was on TV a few days ago saying the Gulf money really helped the country during the election period, especially from the [central bank’s] perspective. He said he will be on a tour after the elections to thank the leaders of these countries [assuming he’s going to win].”

Erdogan thanked his campaign team and those manning the polling stations for their time and work as he urged citizens to “protect the ballot boxes”.

In a tweet, he said: “I would like to thank each of my colleagues who have been devotedly working at the ballot boxes since the early hours of the morning. I invite all of my fellow citizens to protect the ballot boxes until the results are final. Now is the time to protect the will of our nation until the last moment!”

Sabahın erken saatlerinden beri sandıklarda fedakârca görev yapan her bir dava arkadaşıma teşekkür ediyorum.

Sonuçlar kesinleşinceye kadar tüm kardeşlerimi sandıklara sahip çıkmaya davet ediyorum.

Şimdi, milletimizin başımız üzerine olan iradesini son ana kadar koruma vakti!

— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) May 28, 2023

Al Jazeera has been speaking to voters, who have expressed less enthusiasm for the current polls than they did in the previous ones and also in the first round two weeks ago.

“Turkey has been through so many elections in the last decades. People are tired of the ballot boxes – for mayoral elections, parliamentary elections, presidential referendums,” Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu reported from Istanbul.

We reported on how many voters seemed to find it hard to resurrect the enthusiasm they had in the first round here.

Erdogan’s campaign team has told Al Jazeera that it is not taking the election for granted following his strong showing in the first round on May 14.

“President Erdogan always casts his ballot in the same school, in the same polling station, and after he gets out, he interacts with people, children, but this time, he stayed much longer outside. He spent a longer time with people, which was considered a sign of confidence,” Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu reported from Istanbul.

“Erdogan thanked everyone who played a role in the elections and thanked people who took the time to man the ballots,” she said.

Millions of displaced Syrians are closely watching Turkey’s presidential run-off.

The policies of the candidate who wins will affect both Turkey and Syria.

Watch the report from Al Jazeera’s Nour Qormosh from Idlib, Syria, below.

You can visit our interactive page that will be updated live as soon as results are announced.

Follow the vote here.

Al Jazeera’s correspondents throughout Turkey say the vote largely went smoothly and orderly and turnout has been healthy by international standards.

Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said Kilicdaroglu’s supporters appeared confident despite their candidate finishing second in the first round.

One of them, Ali Mert, said: “The whole nation wants change because our country wants its rights, justice and rule of law.”

The Turkish leader got a much-needed endorsement from Sinan Ogan a nationalist party leader who placed third in the first-round vote.

An entire era of Turkish politics has been defined by Erdogan.

Kilicdaroglu, his challenger, is his polar opposite – in personality and politics.

Both candidates turned to nationalist groups to widen their bases. But will that make a difference? And what impact will it have on Turkey’s future?

Watch Inside Story:

• Polls closed at 5pm (14:00 GMT), and counting is under way in the first presidential run-off election in Turkey’s history.
• More than 64 million people are eligible to vote. The polls opened at 8am (5:00 GMT).
• Turkey does not have exit polls, but the preliminary results are expected within hours of the polls closing.
• A broadcast ban on announcing results will likely be lifted around 6:30pm local time (15:30 GMT).
• Turkish citizens living overseas had already cast their ballots. Some 1.9 million voted in 73 countries.
• There is also voting at border gates, where ballot boxes remained open until voting closed in Turkey.

With polls closed across Turkey in the presidential run-off, vote counting is now under way.