Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has ruled his country with an increasingly firm grip for 20 years, was locked in a good election race Sunday, with a make-or-break runoff towards his chief challenger attainable as the ultimate votes have been counted.

The outcomes, whether or not they come inside days or after a second spherical of voting takes place in two weeks, will decide if a NATO ally that straddles Europe and Asia however borders Syria and Iran stays underneath Erdogan’s management or resumes the extra democratic path promised by his predominant rival, opposition chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Speaking to supporters in Ankara, Erdogan stated he may nonetheless win however would respect the nation’s determination if the race went to a runoff vote in two weeks.

“We don’t yet know if the elections ended in the first round. … If our nation has chosen for a second round, that is also welcome,” Erdogan stated early Monday, noting that votes from Turkish residents residing overseas nonetheless have to be tallied. He garnered 60% of the abroad vote in 2018.

This yr’s election largely centered on home points such because the financial system, civil rights and a February earthquake that killed greater than 50,000 individuals. But Western nations and international traders additionally awaited the end result due to Erdogan’s typically erratic management of the financial system and efforts to place Turkey on the heart of worldwide negotiations.

With the unofficial rely practically accomplished, voter help for the incumbent had dipped under the bulk required for him to win reelection outright. Erdogan had 49.6% of the vote, whereas Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party alliance, had 44.7%, in line with the state-run information company Anadolu.

Turkey’s election authority, the Supreme Electoral Board, stated it was offering numbers to competing political events “instantly” and would make the outcomes public as soon as the rely was accomplished and finalized.

The majority of ballots from the three.4 million eligible abroad voters nonetheless wanted to be tallied, in line with the board, and a May 28 runoff election was not assured.

Howard Eissenstat, an affiliate professor of Middle East historical past and politics at St. Lawrence University in New York, stated Erdogan was more likely to have a bonus in a runoff as a result of the president’s celebration was more likely to do higher in a parliamentary election additionally held Sunday. Voters wouldn’t need a “divided government,” he stated.

Erdogan, 69, has ruled Turkey as both prime minister or president since 2003. In the run-up to the election, opinion surveys had indicated the more and more authoritarian chief narrowly trailed his challenger.

With the partial outcomes exhibiting in any other case, members of Kilicdaroglu’s center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, disputed Anadolu’s preliminary numbers, contending the state-run company was biased in Erodgan’s favor.

Omer Celik, a spokesperson for Erdogan’s Justice and Development, or AK, celebration, in flip accused the opposition of “an attempt to assassinate the national will.” He referred to as the opposition claims “irresponsible.”

While Erdogan hopes to win a five-year time period that might take him nicely into his third decade as Turkey’s chief, Kilicdaroglu, 74, campaigned on guarantees to reverse crackdowns on free speech and different types of democratic backsliding, in addition to to restore an financial system battered by excessive inflation and foreign money devaluation.

Voters additionally elected lawmakers to fill Turkey’s 600-seat parliament, which misplaced a lot of its legislative energy after a referendum to alter the nation’s system of governance to an govt presidency narrowly handed in 2017.

With 92% of poll containers counted, Anadolu information company stated Erdogan’s ruling celebration alliance was hovering under 50%, whereas Kilicdaroglu’s Nation Alliance had round 35% and a pro-Kurdish celebration above 10%.

“That the election results have not been finalized doesn’t change the fact that the nation has chosen us,” Erdogan stated.