2023-05-28 06:50:01
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power for twenty years, approaches this unprecedented second round of the presidential election in the position of favorite, facing the social democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
Despite everything, Ersin Avci, a 32-year-old saleswoman who came to vote among the first in Istanbul, hopes “a miracle always possible”: “We were really disappointed that Kiliçdaroglu did not win in the first round, and surprised. But we remain hopeful.”
In the residential district of Sisli in Istanbul, Özer Atayolu, a 93-year-old retired engineer, arrived among the first: “I always arrive early to vote first because I believe in democracy and in my responsibility as a citizen “, he confides, sliding his eyes narrowed with mischief that he feels “like a child celebrating”.
In Ankara, the capital, Zerrin Alan, 55, assures that she was “so excited (that she) might not sleep”. “I hope this election will not be rigged,” she adds.
Two visions of the country, society and governance are offered to the 60 million voters in Turkey (the diaspora has already voted) called to the polls.
Stability at the risk of autocracy with the outgoing hyper-president, a 69-year-old Islamo-conservative; or the return to a peaceful democracy, in his words, with his opponent, a 74-year-old former civil servant.
Read also: Türkiye: five lessons to be learned from the first round of the presidential election
The 49.5% of votes that Mr. Erdogan, former mayor of Istanbul and devout Muslim, collected in the first round on May 14 testified to the broad support given to him, despite the inflation, by a conservative majority.
Including in the areas devastated by the February 6 earthquake which left at least 50,000 dead and three million displaced.
Facing him, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the “demokrat dede” – the democratic grandpa – as this trained economist with white hair and thin glasses presents himself, has not been able to capitalize on the serious economic crisis which is weighing down Turkish households and young people .
Chairman of the CHP – the party of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the republic, he promised the “return of spring” and the parliamentary regime, the independence of justice and the press.
“We are fed up with the oppression of the regime and its policies”, proclaimed Saturday in Ankara a 39-year-old teacher, Ugur Barlas, who will vote for the opponent and “change”.
But Mr. Kiliçdaroglu, with 45% of the vote in the first round, looks like an outsider: despite the repeated support of the pro-Kurdish HDP, he is credited in the polls with five points behind the Head of State who benefits already a majority in parliament resulting from the legislative elections of 14 May.
A million watchers
Sluggish following the first round, as if flabbergasted at not having won the victory that his side thought he had won, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu resurfaced following four days, more offensive and less smiling than the humble “Mr. Everybody” from his start to the campaign .
Lacking access to the major media and especially to the official television channels, dedicated to the president’s campaign, he battled on Twitter when his supporters tried to remobilize voters by door-to-door in the big cities.
At stake, the 8.3 million registrants who did not come on May 14 – despite a participation rate of 87%.
Read also: Presidential election in Türkiye: nationalist outbidding before the second round
Faced with this discreet man of Alevi obedience – a branch of Islam considered heretical by the ultra Sunnis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has multiplied the meetings, relying on the transformations he has been able to bring to the country since his accession to power. as Prime Minister in 2003, then as President since 2014.
Mr. Erdogan, who has already raised the minimum wage three times in one year, has multiplied his campaign generosity, such as these free scholarships promised in extremis to students in mourning following the earthquake.
Sunday is “a special day for all of us”, he said on Saturday: “The time of coups and juntas is over”.
For one of his last campaign trips, he went on Saturday to the grave of his model in politics, a former nationalist-Islamist Prime Minister, Adnan Menderes, deposed and then hanged by the military in 1961.
The date of this second round, however, comes ten years to the day following the start of the great demonstrations of “Gezi” which, from Istanbul, spread throughout the country. First wave of anti-Erdogan protests, they had been severely repressed.
For Zerrin Altayli, a 60-year-old retiree, the important thing on Sunday is that the vote be “honest” and “without fraud”.
To this end, the opposition has planned to deploy “five observers per ballot box”, ie a million people in total to monitor the ballot.
The first round had taken place in a “competitive” but “limited” way because of the “unjustified advantage” granted by the official media, had estimated the joint mission of the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
Unless there is a surprise, the results are expected on Sunday evening, and will be scrutinized by Turkey’s allies, particularly within NATO.
Par Le360 (with AFP)
On 05/28/2023 at 06:44
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