According to the results of counting 89.24% of the votes in the presidential elections in Turkey, none of the candidates received more than 50% of the vote, Anadolu Agency reports . The incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has 49.94%, the leader of the united opposition Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 44.30%. According to Turkish law, if none of the candidates receives more than half of the votes, a second round of elections must take place. It is scheduled for May 28th.
With each round of vote counting, the gap between Erdogan Kılıçdaroğlu continued to shrink. For example, when 61.3% of the ballots were checked, the incumbent, according to media reports, had 51.56% of the vote, while his main rival had 42.61%. More than 64 million Turkish citizens took part in the elections. The candidates themselves also voted. Erdogan – at a polling station in Istanbul's Uskudar district, and Kılıçdaroğlu – in Ankara.
Simultaneously with the presidential elections in Turkey, parliamentary elections are held. At the time of writing, 82.77% of the votes were counted on them. Preliminary results are as follows: the ruling Justice and Development Party – 50.49%, the opposition Republican People's Party – 34.55%.