Erdogan’s future is in doubt as Turkish votes come to a close

Sunday marked the culmination of voting in Turkey’s razor-thin election, which could bring an end to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade rule and set the predominantly Muslim country on a more secular path.

In what has essentially evolved into a vote on Turkiye’s longest-serving leader and his Islamic-based party, a sizable turnout was anticipated.

The 69-year-old leader is up against his most difficult vote yet, one that surveys suggest he may lose.

“We need change, we’ve had enough,” farmer Mehmet Topaloglu told AFP after casting his ballot amidst the devastation caused by the catastrophic earthquake in February that leveled the historic city of Antakya and other areas of the southeast.

Additionally, more religious voters are appreciative of his choice to remove prohibitions on headscarves and add more Islamic institutions.
Erdogan remarked after casting his ballot in Istanbul, “My prayer to God is that after the results are announced this evening, the outcome is good for the future of our nation, for Turkish democracy.”

“We all miss democracy,” said Erdogan after his first decade of economic growth and improving ties with Europe. His second decade was marked by social unrest and political unrest.

After a failed coup attempt in 2016, he carried out extensive purges that shook Turkish society and made him an increasingly uneasy partner for the West.

Turkish voters and international friends now have a choice thanks to Kemal Kilicdaroglu and his six-party opposition alliance, which creates the kind of broad-based coalition that Erdogan was an expert at creating throughout his career.

an obvious substitute.

According to polls, the 74-year-old secular leader is just a hair away from surpassing the 50% barrier required to prevail in the first round.

May 28 runoff could offer Erdogan time to refocus and recast the discussion.

Nevertheless, he would continue to be plagued by Turkey’s worst economic crisis during his term in office and worry over his administration’s bungled reaction to the earthquake that lost more than 50,000 people.