The opposition was helped by the withdrawal of a third-party candidate Thursday who was hurting Kilicdaroglu's efforts to hand the Turkish leader his first national electoral defeat. Erdogan was uncharacteristically coy about making predictions about the outcome of Turkey's most consequential election of modern times. The Turkish leader has been slowly losing support from key segments of the population that rallied around him during a more prosperous decade following his rise in 2003. Kilicdaroglu wants to return the power that Erdogan won through a contested constitutional referendum the following year back to parliament. But the opposition would win a majority if it secured support from a new leftist alliance that represents the Kurdish vote.

Source: Ethiopian News May 13, 2023 08:25 UTC