Voters will have
to wait almost two more weeks
to choose their next leader.
Officials have set a presidential run off
on May 28, saying no candidate
crossed the 50%
threshold needed to win Sunday's vote.
The two
candidates headed to the final round
are incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and Kemal Klich, the Oracle. Mr.
Erdogan's chief
rival is an economist
backed by an alliance
of several opposition parties.
He is among those
who say
the president is responsible
for struggling economy.
Mr.
Erdogan's critics
also blame him for a lackluster
earthquake response that cost lives.
But he did better in the polls
than many expected.
And his party is set to remain
the largest
in parliament Ahead of final results
this morning.
All this students
Jomana Karadsheh joins me now
live from Istanbul.
And Jomana, it's
not a win yet for Erdogan.
Anything
of course, is possible mathematically,
but he's in a strong position
ahead of this runoff.
So what is your sense in the ground?
Is he likely
to hold on to cling on to power here?
Well, I
mean,
you know,
so you have to look at the numbers. Yes.
President Erdogan did not get that.
50 plus 1%
that was needed to get the presidency.
But he did do better than was
what was expected
in all the polling that was taking place
before these elections.
They did have
calculated the role of the leader
of the opposition in the lead.
And now you see that
President Erdogan has pretty much
come out with that slight lead
with more than 49% of the vote.
And you've got both sides
sounding very confident
going into this second round.
But a lot of the supporters
of the opposition are very concerned
that the opposition
might not have that same determination
in among its electorate,
that same kind of enthusiasm.
They went into that first round
believing that
that win from the first
round was possible.
Now you also have that third candidate
who was running
an ultra nationalist shenanigan
and he could potentially emerge from this
as a tie breaker with those 5% votes.
Of course, he's
been eliminated
because only the top two
will be headed towards that runoff
and that 5% vote that
he managed to garner in this election.
What happens to that?
It is a combination of
disenchanted nationalists
who couldn't vote
for President Erdogan's alliance.
And then
you've also got the protest voters
who did not agree
with the opposition's choice
of came out cold,
sterile or to
to lead the opposition
into these elections.
What happens to that?
He spoke earlier to our colleague,
Becky Anderson.
Take a listen to what Sinan told her.
What we're thinking is
all the political parties
should exclude terror organizations.
We don't have to give our support
to either of the parties.
There is no such rule.
When we first started this race,
we thought we need to
either win the government
or we are going to be the kingmaker.
And we are at that status.
Political parties like FDP or Huda.
We want those candidates
not to rely on parties
that have no distance
between terrorist groups.
And we succeeded in that
And we're going to have to wait and see.
Isa, he did say that
he is going to be in consultations
with the four other parties
that are part of his
small alliance
to see what they decide
to do
in the next couple of weeks,
whether they're going to endorse anyone.
But then there's also the question
of those who voted for him.
Will they be following
whatever his decision is or will
they be going their own way?
A critical couple of weeks
ahead for Turkey, ahead of a yet
another consequential vote
for this country
that people would tell you
is not just about the next five years,
but the direction
their country is taking. Indeed.
And they're not giving much away,
very much playing the role
potentially of kingmaker.
But look, let's talk
about the opposition, because, of course,
all the numbers
we've been seeing ahead of this
was that they're going to do fairly well.
They now have two weeks now
to wait for this runoff, Jomana.
What is the mood right now?
Do they fear they will lose momentum?
Can they re-energize the
population at this stage?
That is going to be the question.
That's going to be the big challenge
because there was real disappointment
among the voters for the opposition
among their supporters.
They really were expecting something
very different.
They believe that chemical it's
the ruler in this alliance
has underperformed.
People really have their hope
in this united front, this opposition
coming together in a way
they have never done before.
You've had these six diverse parties
backed by the Kurds as well,
all coming together
as this one coalition.
They were hoping to unseat
President Erdogan.
Their promise was really speaking
to the disgruntlement
of much of the population
here, promising them
change, promising
that real democracy
under a parliamentary system
will come back again under this
this opposition if they do win.
And there was this feeling
that they could achieve this.
They were promising that they could
potentially do this from the first round.
Then you had
the polls that were coming out
and putting chemical its true blue
in the lead.
So right now
you have the serious disappointment,
but you're also hearing
from the opposition
saying that they are ready
for this second
round chemical solution, saying
today he's not going anywhere.
He is here in here to stay
and he will fight until the last moment.
But we will have to see
because I mean, you saw yesterday,
we saw these incredible scenes
where you had so many people turning out
Turkey does have a history
of high turnout at elections.
Yesterday was a record turnout.
Nearly 90% of eligible
voters were out voting.
We saw the elderly being brought
into these polling centers
on stretchers and on wheelchairs.
We spoke to first time voters
who were saying
that this was the most decisive election
in the history of their country.
And they felt that they had an obligation
to take part in that.
And a lot of people that we spoke
to were saying that they wanted change
But clearly,
if you look at the results,
you see a very divided Turkey.
It is really a reflection
of the state of polarization
in this country.
Two very different men, two very
different visions
for the future of the country.
And Turks are very much divided
on what Turkey
they want to emerge out of this election.
And then the work begins of
how do you unite the country?
Like you said,
Jomana, this clearly polarized.
Jomana Karadsheh there for us.
Thanks very much, Jomana.