Turkey’s opposition leader on Friday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government of blocking text messages sent to voters ahead of this weekend’s historic election.
Kemal Kilidaroglu accused Turkey’s BTK Information and Telecommunications Technologies Authority of acting on Erdogan’s orders to damage his campaign.
“They stopped[them]because they are afraid of us,” the secular opposition leader said in a late-night television interview.
“I’m left in the dark,” he added separately on Twitter. “I’m asking you Erdogan, don’t you want me to run in the election?”
Kilidaroglu’s campaign team had earlier sent out a mass text inviting people to watch the opposition leader’s television interview.
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BTK had no immediate comment.
Kilidaroglu’s claims come at the end of a bitter battle for Turkey’s presidency.
Erdogan fell short before securing a landslide victory on May 14 but enters Sunday’s final as the firm favorite to extend his two-decade rule until 2028.
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Polls show Kilidaroglu struggling to make up for his five-point deficit in the first round.
The two rivals have been campaigning around the clock in what is expected to be Turkey’s most important election in generations.
Erdogan appeared in his own national television interview earlier in the day, which lasted more than an hour.
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