ISTANBUL (Reuters/Anadolu) – Turkish citizens based abroad began voting on Saturday in Turkey’s presidential runoff election between the incumbent Tayyip Erdogan and his challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who aims to bring an end to the president’s two-decade rule.
The runoff election will be held in Turkey on May 28 after Erdogan fell just short of the 50% threshold needed to win the presidential vote outright last Sunday in what had been expected to be his greatest ever political challenge.
Some 3.4 million Turks are eligible to vote abroad, out of a total electorate of more than 64 million, and will cast their ballots from May 20-24.
State-owned Anadolu news agency said voting had started in countries across Asia and Europe. Germany is home to the world’s largest Turkish diaspora, where there are some 1.5 million Turkish citizens eligible to vote.
In last Sunday’s vote, Erdogan’s ruling AK Party and its nationalist allies won a comfortable parliamentary majority.
The Turkish President, in an interview, discussed the second round of the presidential election on May 28, expressing his belief that the Turkish people will, once again, demonstrate their strong democracy, with a significant voter turnout reaching up to 90 percent, Anadolu News Agency reports.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan also addressed various topics, ranging from the election process to foreign policy during his interview with CNN International.
When asked about his comfort level, given his successful track record in winning elections over the past 20 years and breaking records, Erdogan reiterated his confidence in the Turkish people and their strong democracy, emphasizing the importance of the high voter turnout. He expressed hope that the people would not disappoint.
On the reminder of U.S. President, Joe Biden, labeling him as an autocrat during his election campaign, the Turkish President questioned how a person who made it to the second round, not the first, could be considered a dictator.
He stressed that the People’s Alliance would enter Parliament with 322 deputies, and the person leading the alliance (Erdogan) would emerge as the winner of the second round, asking: “What kind of dictatorship is this?”
When asked if he would work with the Biden administration if re-elected, Erdogan stated that there was no doubt that he would work with President Biden, and that if the Biden administration changes he would work with the new one as well.
In response to a question about the West’s stance towards Russia in the Ukraine conflict, with reference to his previous comments about the West pursuing a more provocative policy, President Erdogan said the West had not demonstrated a balanced approach in this regard.