Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took an early lead Sunday in a historic runoff election that could extend two decades of his dominant but divisive Islamic style of rule until 2028.
The official Anadolu state news agency showed Erdogan leading his secular opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu by nine percentage points with more than 70 percent of the vote counted.
But his advantage was narrowing as more results came in and a rival count published by the pro-opposition Anka news agency showed the two candidates locked in a dead heat.
The NATO member’s longest-serving leader defied critics and doubters by emerging with a comfortable lead against his secular challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the first round on May 14.
Kilicdaroglu cobbled together a powerful coalition that grouped Erdogan’s disenchanted former allies with secular nationalists and religious conservatives.
Opposition supporters viewed it as a do-or-die chance to save Turkey from being turned into an autocracy by a man whose consolidation of power rivals that of Ottoman sultans.
“I invite all my citizens to cast their ballot in order to get rid of this authoritarian regime and bring true freedom and democracy to this country,” Kilicdaroglu said after casting his ballot in Turkey’s first presidential runoff.
The 69-year-old looked tired but at ease as he voted with his wife Emine in a conservative district of Istanbul.
“I ask my citizens to turn out and vote without complacency,” Erdogan said.
Emir Bilgin heeded the Turkish leader’s call.
“I’m going to vote for Erdogan. There’s no one else like him,” the 24-year-old said from a working-class Istanbul neighbourhood where the young future president grew up playing street football.
