A supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stands outside the headquarters of AK Party in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, May 14, 2023. Francisco Seco/Associated PressANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s presidential election will be decided in a runoff, election officials said Monday, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan pulled ahead of his chief challenger, but fell short of an outright victory that would extend his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade. In the last presidential election in 2018, Erdogan secured 52.6% of the vote in the first round, winning outright. “That the election results have not been finalized doesn’t change the fact that the nation has chosen us,” Erdogan, 69, told supporters in the early hours of Monday. He portrayed Kilicdaroglu, who had received the backing of the country’s pro-Kurdish party, of colluding with “terrorists” and of supporting what he called “deviant” LGBTQ rights.

Source: Huffington Post May 15, 2023 20:07 UTC