Europe News Desk!!! According to the semi-official Anadolu Agency, Turkey appears to be heading for another presidential election. Because no candidate seems to be getting more than 50 percent in the counting of votes. Turkey’s current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead of opposition rival Kemal Kilikdaroglu in early results from Anadolu, Xinhua news agency reported, but the gap has narrowed. Erdogan received 49.67 percent of the vote when 93 percent of ballots were counted, with 44.59 percent for opposition leader Kemal Kilikdaroglu, Anadolu reported. Sinan Ogan, the third candidate, received 5.3 percent of the vote.
If no candidate wins a simple majority or 50 percent of the vote in the first round, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates on 28 May. On the other hand, the counting of votes for the parliamentary elections is also being completed. Unofficial results showed that 323 representatives of the People’s Alliance, formed by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the New Welfare Party and the Great Union Party, were elected. This is the highest among the three coalitions for the 600-seat parliament. The six-party opposition Bloc Nation Alliance won 214 seats. The 360 seats needed to hold a referendum to end the current executive presidency have not been achieved. The Labor and Freedom Alliance, a coalition of left-wing political parties, got 63 seats. This includes 60 seats for the Green Left Party and three seats for the Workers’ Party of Turkey. About 80 percent of the voters had exercised their votes.
–IANS
World News Desk!!!
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