“They are constantly challenging the voting record, and thus they block the system. The system should not be manipulated with challenges”, warned candidate Kilikdaroglu, in a brief appearance on television.
Turkey’s main opposition Social Democrat CHP has denounced that the dissemination of results in today’s presidential election has been “manipulated” and confirmed that its candidate, Kemal Kilikdaroglu, has defeated Recep Tayyip, the current head of state. Erdogan.
“They are constantly challenging the voting records, and thus they block the system. The system should not be manipulated with challenges”, Kilikdaroglu warned in a brief appearance on television.
“We have the signed minutes. Let the votes be counted and the result clear. I also warn the members of the Election Commission: Do not block the will of the nation. Till the last vote is counted, we Will stay here.
He did not indicate who, in his opinion, leads the count, but several senior officials of his party previously claimed that he had an edge over his rival when preliminary data were released according to results sent by CHP Kiliçdaroglu table delegates. Pro-government Anadolu Agency has claimed otherwise.
The chairman of the election commission, Ahmet Yener, appeared earlier to clarify that the official system counted 69% of votes, when advances given by Anadolu and other media already exceeded 90%.
“There are 7.5 million votes that have not entered the system. They come from the places where we are strongest. They manipulate the results and leave people in front of the television all night, ”declared Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul and the country’s vice-presidential candidate.
“We believe that the whole country will see how Kilikdaroglu will proceed in the morning (the count),” he stressed.
According to Anadolu Agency, Erdogan wins the election with 49.7% of the vote, five points more than the opposition candidate when 93% of the votes have already been counted.
Erdogan will thus have lost the absolute majority with which he became president in 2014 and which he renewed in 2018, and will now have to defend his position against Kilikdaroglu in a second round in two weeks.
“We do not trust the AKP (Erdogan’s party) system. We don’t trust Anadolu,” said Imamoglu, who was challenged for an election victory by the AKP in Istanbul in 2019, forcing a replay that he again won by a huge margin.
Ankara’s mayor, Mansur Yavas, who is also a Social Democrat, said that with the data available to him, Kilikdaroglu would have 47.7% of the vote, two points more than Erdogan.
“The chances of a second round are high, but our president can still win in the first round,” he said.
