Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan became Turkey’s first popularly elected head of state, mustering 51.8% of the vote, or 20.7 million votes, in the first round of the presidential elections on Aug. 10, according to preliminary results. With 55.6 million eligible voters, the turnout stood at 74.3%, below the country’s traditional average.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the joint candidate of the two largest opposition forces, the center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the rightist Nationalist Action Party (MHP), won 38.5% of the vote, or 15.4 million votes, according to the preliminary results. The figure signifies a glaring debacle for Ihsanoglu and the two opposition parties that supposedly backed him, for the CHP and the MHP’s combined vote in the March 30 local elections amounted to 43%, or about 20 million votes.
