Polling stations opened this Sunday at 08:00 in Turkey for an unprecedented second round of the presidential election, which opposes outgoing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to social democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. After the close of voting at 17:00, the first results are expected in the early evening.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power for twenty years, approaches this unprecedented second round of the presidential election as the favourite, facing the social democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
Two visions of the country, society and governance are available to the 60 million voters in Turkey (the diaspora has already voted) called to the polls.
Stability at the risk of autocracy with the outgoing hyper-president, a 69-year-old Islamo-conservative; or the return to a peaceful democracy, in his words, with his opponent, a 74-year-old former civil servant.
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The 49.5% of the vote that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former mayor of Istanbul and devout Muslim, received in the first round on 14 May showed the broad support he has from a conservative majority despite inflation.
Five points behind the head of state
Including in areas devastated by the February 6 earthquake that killed at least 50,000 people and displaced three million people.
Faced with him, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the "demokrat dede" - the democratic grandpa - as this trained economist with white hair and thin glasses presents himself, has not been able to capitalize on the serious economic crisis that is weighing down Turkish households and young people.
President of the CHP - the party of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the republic, he promised the "return of spring" and the parliamentary regime, the independence of the judiciary and the press.
VIDEO. Presidential election in Turkey: Erdogan in ballot, the election will have a second round
But Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, with 45% of the vote in the first round, is an outsider: despite the repeated support of the pro-Kurdish HDP, he is credited in the polls with five points behind the head of state who already enjoys a majority in parliament after the legislative elections of 14th May.
