(Reuters) -
Tayyip Erdogan was set to be Turkey's next president after local media
credited the veteran prime minister with more than half the vote in a
near-complete count and allies said Erdogan had won. After an election on
Sunday that his opponents say may create an increasingly authoritarian
state, broadcasters said Erdogan had 52.0 percent of the vote, 13 points
more than his closest rival. Such a result would rule out a runoff
round and seal Erdogan's place in history as Turkey's first directly
elected head of state, a role expected to enhance his power. In
a Twitter message confirmed by his office, Justice Minister Bekir
Bozdag said: "Erdogan has become the first president elected by the
people." The deputy chairman of his ruling AK party said Erdogan won
with just over 52 percent. Erdogan
himself said "the people have shown their will" but stopped short of
declaring victory in comments to supporters in Istanbul. He said he
would speak later at party headquarters in the capital Ankara once the
count was complete. Turkey
has emerged as a regional economic force under Erdogan, who, as prime
minister for more than a decade, has ridden a wave of religiously
conservative support to transform the secular republic founded by
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. But
his critics warn that a President Erdogan, with his roots in political
Islam and intolerance of dissent, would lead the NATO member and
European Union candidate further away from Ataturk's secular ideals. The
main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, was on 38.8 percent
with 90 percent of votes counted while Selahattin Demirtas of the
pro-Kurdish, left-wing People's Democratic Party was on 9.2 percent,
said television stations CNN Turk and NTV. Turkey's
electoral authorities are not officially due to announce their first
results until Monday, with final figures due later in the week, but
Erdogan, 60, is expected to make a victory address later on Sunday. In
a tea house in the working-class Istanbul district of Tophane, men
watching election coverage on television praised Erdogan as a pious man
of the people who had boosted Turkey's status both economically and on
the international stage. "Erdogan
is on the side of the underdog. He is the defender against injustice.
While the Arab world was silent, he spoke out against Israel on Gaza,"
said Murat, 42, a jeweler, who declined to give his family name. "This
country was ruined by the old politicians. They lied to us. They caused
economic crises, the PKK violence," he said. Erdogan has opened a peace
process with Kurdish PKK militants to end a conflict which has killed
40,000 people in 30 years. The
voting turnout, which exceeded 89 percent in March local elections,
appeared to be low, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly observer George
Tsereteli told reporters. Opinion
polls had put Erdogan, 60, far ahead of two rivals competing for a
five-year term as president. Parliament has in the past chosen the head
of state but this was changed under a law pushed through by Erdogan's
government. He has set
his sights on serving two presidential terms, keeping him in power past
2023, the 100th anniversary of the secular republic. For a leader who
refers frequently to Ottoman history in his speeches, the date has
special significance. A rapturous crowd cheered and chanted "Turkey
is proud of you" and "President Erdogan" as he emerged from a school
where he voted with his wife and children on the Asian side of Istanbul.
He waved and shook people's hands. "The
(voters') decision will be crucial as an elected president and
government will hand-in-hand carry our Turkey decisively towards 2023,"
he told reporters. In his
final campaign speech in the conservative stronghold of Konya on
Saturday, he said the election would herald a "new Turkey" and "a strong
Turkey is rising again from the ashes". "Let's
leave the old Turkey behind. The politics of polarization, divisiveness
and fear has passed its expiry date," he told a crowd of thousands. His
vision of a new Turkey left voters cold at one polling station in the
capital Ankara, where many complained of deep polarization under Erdogan
and said only his AK Party loyalists had benefited from changes in the
past decade. "The freedom
that he says has increased is for his own supporters. You can only be
free if you support him. He has polarized this country in a way nobody
has before," said Yucel Duranoglu, 45, who works for a private company. "ONE-MAN RULE" The
prime minister has promised to exercise the full powers granted to him
by current laws, unlike his predecessors who have played a mainly
ceremonial role. But he also plans to change the constitution to
establish a fully executive presidency. The
current constitution, written under military rule after a 1980 coup,
would enable him to chair cabinet meetings and appoint the premier and
members of top judicial bodies including the constitutional court and
supreme council of judges. Ihsanoglu
voted in a wealthy district of Istanbul near the Bosphorus strait while
Demirtas cast his vote in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly
Kurdish southeast. Erdogan was set to vote in Istanbul in the afternoon. Erdogan's
AK Party scored a clear victory in local elections in March and a
triumph on Sunday would emphatically put an end to the toughest year of
his time in power. He
was shaken by nationwide anti-government protests last summer, and
months later, Erdogan and his inner circle were targeted by a corruption
investigation and a power struggle with his former ally, U.S.-based
cleric Fethullah Gulen. He
accuses Gulen of seeking to overthrow him and has pledged as president
to continue purging institutions such as the police and judiciary where
Gulen is believed to wield influence. Despite the challenges Erdogan has faced, there was an air of resignation among many voters who oppose him. "I
am almost depressed. I worry for my country because I increasingly feel
like an alien here. The prime minister is talking about a Turkey that I
don't recognize," said Erkan Sonmez, 43, who works in an import-export
business. "I can no longer speak to my neighbors who vote for the AK Party, does that sound like a peaceful community to you?"
Erdogan wins Turkish presidency, allies say
Reuters
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