Majority of Turkish diaspora voting for Erdogan: Expert to Al Mayadeen

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
2 May 2023 18:13

If neither candidate receives more than 50% of the votes in the first round, the election will continue to a runoff on May 28.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, addresses supporters in Izmir on April 30, 2023 (Handout/Reuters)

The Turkish diaspora is mostly consisting of current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan AKP supporters, Sezin Öney, a Turkish researcher told Al Mayadeen, adding that the elections are proving to be a point of no return on an international level.

She said that defense and military firms also play a significant role but the economy is the main factor.

#الانتخابات_التركية مفصلية بالنسبة إلى الداخل التركي، لكن على مستوى السياسة الخارجية، لن تكون هناك عودة إلى الوراء".

- الباحثة السياسية سيزين أوناي لـ #الميادين -#تركيا #تركيا_بوسفور_الانتخابات pic.twitter.com/0kv2gaNXTq
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) May 2, 2023

Al Mayadeen's correspondent to Ankara, Omar Kayed, reported that opinion polls in the nation, often do not count foreign votes and added that the polls are currently discussing how indecisive the first round is turning out to be - after voting for Turkish citizens outside the country began April 2 and will continue until the 9th of May.

At the border crossings, voting will go on until the evening of the 14th which is election day.

During a press conference at the Turkish Supreme Election Commission’s HQ in Ankara, the head of the country's High Election Board (YSK), Ahmet Yener, said that the total number of registered voters expected to partake in the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections has amounted to a total of 64,113,941 votes; 60,697,843 are on Turkish mainland, and the rest are in the diaspora.

According to AP, contrasts between both candidates - Erdogan and CHP's Kemal Kilicdaroglu - prevail in their political rhetoric since "Erdogan is also a master campaigner who uses state resources and events to reach supporters while Kilicdaroglu talks to voters in videos recorded in his kitchen."

Erdogan has been in power since 2003, from prime minister to president, while Kilicdaroglu hasn't won a single election since taking over the CHP in 2010.

If neither receives more than 50% of the votes, the election will continue to a runoff on May 28.

With other parties running against Erdogan and his policies but with not enough traction to get to his level, the Table of Six was formed and Kilicdaroglu was elected as the representative of the total opposition. The coalition chairs the CHP; Meral Aksener of the IYI (Good) Party; Ali Babacan of the DEVA (Democracy and Progress) party, Temel Karamollaoglu of the SP (Felicity) party; Ahmet Davutoglu of the GP (Future) party; and Gultekin Uysal of the DP (Democrat) Party.

"Despite the political crises, the pandemic, and the earthquake, they [the AK Party] are leading the polls," said Prof. Dr. Emre Erdogan, political scientist and head of the International Relations Department at Istanbul Bilgi University, in an interview with Al Mayadeen English.

In a head-turning statement, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said the United States and Europe have assigned the Turkish opposition to remove Erdogan from power.

"America and Europe gave them instructions to depose Tayyip Erdogan, to remove Tayyip Erdogan from office," The Star newspaper quoted him as saying.

"Why Tayyip Erdogan? Because America does not want him [at his current post], the West does not want him [to be the president of Turkey]. But it does not matter to us. We are following the will of our people," he added.