Turkey’s presidential election appeared poised for a runoff early Monday, though President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he still thought a first-round victory was possible.
The state-run news agency Anadolu reported early Monday that the 69-year-old Mr. Erdogan had less than the absolute majority needed to win reelection.
With the unofficial vote count nearly complete, he had garnered 49.6% of the vote, while opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu had 44.7%. The trend throughout the evening had seen Mr. Erdogan’s 10-point early lead slipping.
According to reporters in Ankara, Mr. Erdogan told supporters there that final results from Sunday’s election were still unknown but he was “in the clear lead.”
“We don’t yet know if the elections ended in the first round … If our nation has chosen for a second round, that is also welcome,” he said.
However, preelection polls had given a slight lead to Mr. Kilicdaroglu, 74, the joint candidate of a six-party opposition alliance and the leader of the center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party.
With results consistently showing Mr. Erdogan ahead Sunday night, members of Mr. Kilicdaroglu’s party charged that reporting from the state-run Anadolu Agency was biased in Mr. Erodgan’s favor.
“We are ahead,” the opposition leader tweeted as vote counting continued across the nation that deploys NATO’s second-largest military force.
The election amounts to the thorniest challenge faced by Mr. Erdogan in years amid domestic economic turmoil, eroding democratic norms, and criticism of his government’s response to a massive earthquake in February.
He could win another five-year term or be unseated by Mr. Kilicdaroglu, who campaigned on a promise to return Turkey to a more democratic path and to restore an economy battered by high inflation and currency devaluation.
Crowds mobbed polling stations where Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Kilicdaroglu cast their ballots Sunday, with the opposition leader’s supporters chanting “President Kilicdaroglu!”
“We have all missed democracy so much. We all missed being together,” Mr. Kilicdaroglu said after voting. “From now on, you will see that spring will come to this country.”
His comments reflected years of criticism of Mr. Erdogan, who has been accused by opponents of consolidating power, for cracking down on a freed press, and of embracing an Islamist brand of nationalism that has threatened Turkey’s secular democracy.
More than 64 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday’s elections. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the presidency will be determined in a May 28 runoff.
Voters also cast ballots for lawmakers to fill Turkey’s 600-seat parliament, which has lost significant leverage in recent years amid moves by Mr. Erdogan and the AKP to strengthen the reach and power of the presidency.
If his political alliance wins, Mr. Erdogan could continue governing with minimal restriction on the power he has amassed in Turkey, which he has ruled as either prime minister or president since 2003.
The Associated Press reported Sunday that under Mr. Erdogan, Turkey has seen the suppression of freedom of expression and assembly, and that the country has been wracked by a cost-of-living crisis in recent years that critics blame on the government’s mishandling of the economy.
Turkey is also reeling from an earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people.
Political opposition gained momentum in the wake of the disaster, criticizing the Erdogan government’s delayed response and lax implementation of building codes, which raised the death toll.
Internationally, the elections were seen as a test of a united opposition’s ability to dislodge a leader who has concentrated nearly all state powers in his hands and who wielded increasing geopolitical influence on the world stage over the past decade.
Despite criticism of his authoritarian moves, Mr. Erdogan has wielded more clout in international politics, with Turkey bordering Syria, Iraq and Iran. The Turkish president has kept cordial relations with Russia, while also maintaining Turkey’s status as a major NATO member and key U.S. security partner.
His government, along with the United Nations, helped mediate a deal that has allowed Ukrainian grain to reach the rest of the world amid Russia’s ongoing invasion in Ukraine.
The war inspired Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership after decades of neutrality.
But Mr. Erdogan has held up Sweden’s accession to the alliance and demanded concessions, contending that the nation was too lenient on pro-Kurdish groups and followers of a U.S.-based cleric who Turkey considers national security threats.
In 2016, Mr. Erdogan survived a military coup attempt he blamed on followers of a former ally, cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The attempt triggered a large-scale crackdown on the cleric’s supporters and other critics, including pro-Kurdish politicians, for purported links to terror groups.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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