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ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Tayyip Erdogan beat Kemal Kilidaroglu in Turkey’s presidential election on Sunday, extending his term to a third decade. Here are the details of how it was opened:

What were the final results?

In the first round of elections held on May 14, Erdogan received 27.13 million votes, while his rival Kilidaroglu received 24.60 million votes, according to the official results of Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Board. Since none of the candidates received more than 50% of the vote, a second round of elections was held on May 28. The turnout in the first round was 87.04%.

In the second round, unofficial results released by the state-controlled Anadolu news agency showed Erdogan with 27.73 million votes, more than 52 percent of the total, while Kilıdaroğlu got 25.43 million votes. According to Anadolu, the turnout on May 28 reached 84.22 percent.

Erdogan’s Islamist AK Party won 35.61% of the vote in the May 14 parliamentary election. Winning by seven points from the 2018 election. But the coalition, which includes the nationalist MHP, retains a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Political cartoons on world leaders

More than 20 years after he and the AKP came to power, Erdogan has extended his tenure as the longest-serving ruler of modern Turkey. His strong performance in the first round of elections held on May 14, when he managed to rally national voters, belied predictions of political extinction.

As he transformed Turkey and made the secular government that was established 100 years ago conform to his strict Islamic vision, he consolidated his power in his own hands.

Kilıdaroğlu was the opposition candidate and CHP chairman of the main six parties formed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish government. Kilidaroglu has the support of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish parties, which are informal in the coalition.

He offered a comprehensive platform to voters and promised a democratic reset, including a return to a parliamentary system of government and a judicial system that critics say Erdogan has used to crush the opposition.

Erdogan has the power to continue to lead the NATO-member country of 85 million people, whose economy is mired in high living costs, with what analysts say is a brilliant economic policy.

Erdogan’s low-interest policy has pushed inflation to 85% last year and contributed to the lira’s one-tenth its value against the dollar over the past decade.

The lira hit a new record low against the dollar on Monday after Erdogan confirmed his re-election.

Kilidaroglu has promised to return to orthodox economic policies and restore the independence of the central bank.

Erdogan’s critics have accused his government of stifling dissent, eroding civil and human rights and taking control of the judiciary and other government institutions, Turkish officials have denied.

On foreign affairs, under Erdogan, Turkey has been diversifying its military presence in the Middle East and beyond, establishing tighter ties with Russia, and increasingly strained relations with the European Union and the United States.

Erdogan announced a two-month extension on May 17 after Turkey, along with the United Nations, finalized an agreement between Moscow and Kiev to allow Ukrainian wheat exports from Black Sea ports despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

(Reporting by Darren Butler; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters.

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