Turkey on the Ballot

By Letizia Pelligrino

Turkish citizens must choose their next leader in a vote for the first time since Erdogan took office, pitting the outgoing president and the single opposition candidate, Kemal Klçdarolu, against one another.

(Source: CNN)

Turkey is anticipating the results of the election, which will determine the country's next five-year leader. In a nation of 83 million people, 64 million voters are anticipated to cast ballots; about two million people have already voted abroad.

The exceptional situation puts the nationalist and far-right electorate in a position of power. In fact, the third-place finish er, the nationalist Sinan Ogan, obtained 5 per cent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election-a percentage that could potentially overturn Erdogan, who garnered 49.5 % of the vote on May 14 against his main challenger's 45%.

On Tuesday, Ogan formally declared his support for Erdogan. The Republican People's Party (CHP) , which has significant ties to the nation's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is led by the opposition leader. Being by nature and definition a nationalist party, it has never stopped accusing Erdogan of violating the republic's basic principles, Islamizing the nation, and delegitimizing Ataturk.

Erdogan led in the first round by just 2.5 million votes; throughout the past two weeks, the two candidates have concentrated on the 8 million first-round abstainers. In recent days Kılıçdaroğlu has even toughened his stances on issues dear to the nationalist parties, one of them being the presence of millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey. "I am announcing it here. I will send all refugees back home as soon as I am in power" Kılıçdaroğlu said.