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By John Solomou
Nicosia [Cyprus], May 29 (ANI): Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proved to the world as soon as once more that he’s too onerous to die politically. On Sunday’s runoff election, he acquired 52.14 per cent in opposition to 47.86 per cent of his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu and so he’ll proceed to be President till 2028 and can rejoice the a hundredth anniversary of Turkey’s institution as a Republic, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
In the primary spherical of Turkey’s presidential elections held on May 14, Erdogan proved incorrect virtually all opinion polls which confirmed the chief of the opposition Kemal Kilicdaroglu main the polls. Erdogan acquired 49.5 per cent of the vote, 4 proportion factors forward of Kilicdaroglu. As a end result, Turkish voters for the primary time ever needed to go to the poll field for a second time to elect the following president.
After three stints as Prime Minister and two as President, Erdogan was already Turkey’s longest-serving chief, however this time he was dealing with the most important problem in his political life, because the nation is dealing with skyrocketing inflation that led to an enormous price of residing disaster. At the identical time, the Turkish Lira, which at first of Erdogan’s profession was roughly 1.50 to the US greenback, is now at a document low of greater than 20 to the greenback.
Moreover, he has been dealing with criticism for following unorthodox financial insurance policies by pushing the Turkish Central Bank to repeatedly decrease rates of interest, one thing that fuelled inflation and depleted the nation’s overseas trade reserves- and likewise for the sluggish response on the a part of the state to the devastating earthquake that killed greater than 50,000 individuals and rendered tens of millions of individuals homeless.
The large query is how Erdogan has satisfied nearly all of individuals, regardless of the very tough situations they’re dealing with of their on a regular basis life, in addition to the suppression of freedom of expression and meeting, to go to the polling stations and vote for him.
Erdogan headed to the runoff election, having secured sturdy allies who gave him the push he wanted to the touch victory. With the assist of Devlet Bahceli, head of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and the intense Islamist Huda Par occasion, in addition to having locked within the assist of the third candidate, the nationalist Sinan Ogan- who had acquired 5.2 per cent within the first spherical of the vote, Erdogan headed confidently into the second spherical.
Trying to win over voters, Erdogan has elevated wages and pensions and backed electrical energy and fuel payments, and on the similar time projected the large infrastructure initiatives constructed by his authorities. He additionally stirred nationwide delight by giving emphasis on the successes of the nation’s defence trade, primarily fight drones, battle tanks and the Landing Platform Dock TCG Anadolu, whereas presenting Kilicdaroglu as a possible killer of the nation’s defence trade.
He additionally centred his re-election marketing campaign on a promise to rebuild quake-stricken areas, together with establishing 319,000 properties throughout the 12 months, a promise that’s fairly unrealistic. However, many individuals see him as reliable and a supply of stability in addition to a statesman who raised the nation’s affect in world politics.
Erdogan performed very skilfully the nationalist card, accusing his opponent of supporting “Kurdish terrorism,” whereas he offered himself because the chief who has the heart to face as much as the West and because the protector of Turkey’s safety and nationwide curiosity.
As the nation is profoundly nationalistic, even individuals who discover it very onerous to make ends meet, because of the rampant inflation, really feel duty-bound to assist him as a result of “he protects the nation” and is the one who will restore Turkey to its former Ottoman glory.
But regardless of the onerous instances dealing with Turkish households, Erdogan has continued to attract assist from his base, which incorporates non secular Muslims, conservative and working-class individuals who felt largely ignored below earlier governments. They credit score him for restoring the profile of Islam within the nation and for permitting girls to put on the Muslim headband within the civil service, colleges and universities.
The indisputable fact that Erdogan and his enterprise allies management about 90 per cent of the media undoubtedly performed a giant function in his election success.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) estimated that Erdogan acquired 60 instances as a lot airtime on the TRT Haber state broadcaster as Kilicdaroglu final month.
It is noteworthy that Kemal Kilicdaroglu, breaking a taboo in primarily Sunni Turkey, introduced that he’s an Alevi. His marketing campaign within the first spherical was constructed on inclusiveness and searching for consensus and reconciliation in Turkey’s divided and deeply polarized society.
He additionally promised to cut back Erdogan’s govt presidential powers and return the nation to a parliamentary system.
In the run-off election, the six-party coalition supporting Kilicdaroglu, nonetheless reeling from the shock of the primary spherical of elections, modified radically its technique. It modified Kilicdaroglu’s earlier messages of inclusion and democracy and targeted solely on his anti-refugee guarantees, reiterating a pledge to ship refugees again to their international locations of origin.
Kilicdaroglu additionally modified his “grandfather” and “Turkey’s Gandhi” picture to one in every of “a tough leader”, particularly within the query of the tens of millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey. More importantly, after Erdogan introduced that he acquired the backing of the Kurdish Islamist Huda Par Party, Kilicdaroglu accused Erdogan of colluding with “terrorists.”
Furthermore, in an try to fish for voters from the far-right, Kilicdaroglu reached an settlement with the nationalist Umit Ozdag, chief of the Victory Party, agreeing to not reinstate democratically elected Kurdish mayors in Turkey’s south-east who have been beforehand changed by Erdogan with state appointees as a part of the crackdown on Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP).
This transfer has brought about resentment amongst pro-Kurdish voters, and though the pro-Kurdish occasion expressed assist for the opposition candidate as a way to stop the election of Erdogan, it has undoubtedly misplaced tens of hundreds of Kurdish votes for Kilicdaroglu.
Most most likely the defeat of Kilicdaroglu would imply his political finish and his departure from the Republican Party, with the prevailing title for his successor being that of Ekrem Imamoglu. (ANI)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff might not have modified or edited the content material physique)
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