We respect the nation's will manifested through ballot box: Turkish president on elections

ISTANBUL

Following Sunday's landmark elections in Türkiye, the Turkish president said: “We respect the nation's will manifested through ballot box.”

“Regardless of the result, the winner of the May 14 elections was Turkish democracy and the Turkish nation, with 85 million population,” said Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Twitter.

Erdogan said his alliance will emerge victorious from May 28 runoff election by attracting more votes, adding: “Hopefully, we'll achieve a historic success.”

By giving People's Alliance a majority in the Turkish parliament in Sunday's elections, Turkish people affirmed the “trust and belief in us and our alliance,” he added.

Earlier on Monday, the head of the nation’s election authority said Türkiye will hold a second-round runoff on May 28 to elect the president after no candidate won an outright majority in Sunday's poll.

The first round of voting ended with no candidate able to clear the required 50% threshold, but incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the lead, said Ahmet Yener, the head of the Supreme Election Council, citing unofficial results.

Erdogan, the joint candidate for the People's Alliance, and his closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) chair and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, will face off in the second round.

Erdogan finished the first round with 49.51% of the vote, with Kilicdaroglu second at 44.88%, Yener said.

Sinan Ogan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance got 5.17%, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.44%, Yener added.

Millions of voters went to the polls on Sunday to elect the country's president and members of its 600-seat parliament.

More than 64.1 million people were registered to vote, including over 1.76 million who cast their ballots abroad and 4.9 million first-time voters. A total of 192,214 ballot boxes were set up for voters in the country.