Erdogan declared winner of Turkey’s presidential vote by country’s electoral board

Mr Erdogan gains sweeping new powers as he extends his grip on power

Supporters of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate  in front of AKP headquarters in Istanbul

Supporters of Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate in front of AKP headquarters in Istanbul ( Goran Tomasevic/Reuters )

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been declared triumphant in Turkey’s presidential vote by the country’s electoral board, amid accusations of manipulation by his opponents.

Mr Erdogan had earlier claimed he had won after state run news outlets said he was victorious. An announcement from the broadcaster TRT came soon after the Anadolu Agency, who reported that he had won 52.51 per cent of the vote with 98.4 per cent of the total counted.

Independent election monitors and the opposition both maintained that less than half the votes had been counted at that point. The president’s main rival, Muharrem Ince – who state media said had won 30.72 per cent of the vote – urged observers and his supporters to stay on at counting centres, warning that vote rigging was likely to place if they left under the impression that the result had been decided.

But speaking in the early hours of Monday, the head of the Supreme Election Council Sadi Guven confirmed the result. He said that Mr Erdogan “received the absolute majority of all valid votes” and the remaining ballots would not affect the outcome.

Leave a Reply

Discover more from The Muslim Times

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading