President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wins Re-election in Turkey

Jun 25, 2018:

With 97.7% of the votes counted, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received 52.5% of the votes and he was declared the winner in Turkey's presidential and parliamentary election.

The following five parties each received at least 10% of the votes giving all of them representation in parliament:

  • Justice and Development Party (AKP, Erdogan's party)
  • Nationalist Movement Party (MHP, allied with the Justice and Development Party)
  • Republican People's Party (main secular opposition party)
  • Peoples' Democratic Party (pro-Kurd)
  • Good Party (center-right)

The election was also a win for the People's Alliance (an electoral cooperation between the Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party) which received enough votes for a majority in parliament.

The main challenger to Erdogan, Muharrem Ince of the Republican People's Party, received 30.7% of the votes. He disputed the vote count and accused Turkey's Supreme Election Council of manipulating the results.

This election completes the transformation of Turkey's government from a parliamentary to a presidential system of government. A referendum initiating this change took place on April 16, 2017, and was narrowly approved.

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