Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, went into the election trailing in the polls and with many analysts predicting his downfall. On Monday he emerged as the leading candidate after the first round of voting, but having failed to get more than 50% of the vote, he faces a tense run-off election in two weeks.
As Ruth Michaelson in Istanbul tells Michael Safi, the opposition had expected to benefit from voter anger at Turkey’s economic crisis after Erdoğan’s unorthodox policy of low interest rates sent the lira plunging and inflation soaring to hit 85% last year. But instead, it was the opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu who were beginning an inquest into how they let the result get away from them.
Kılıçdaroğlu has pledged to revive democracy after years of state repression and now has two weeks to restate his case to the country.
Photograph: Emrah Gürel/AP
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