Erdogan collected 49.24% of vote in first round of Turkish presidential election — council
To win in the first round, a candidate needed to receive more than 50% of the votes
ANKARA, May 19. /TASS/. Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan collected 49.24% of the vote in the first round of Turkish presidential elections, according to the final count that the Supreme Election Council released on Friday.
His main challenger in the May 14 elections, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, gathered 45.07% of the vote. The third candidate Sinan Ogan got 5.17%, dropping out of the race.
According to the Supreme Election Council, out of the 60,721,745 people registered to vote, 53,993,683 people participated in the May 14th elections. Almost 53 million ballots were considered valid. The turnout was 88.92%.
To win in the first round, a candidate needed to receive more than 50% of the votes. Because no one overcame that threshold, a second round of voting will take place on May 28. A simple majority is sufficient to win in the runoff.