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Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Justice and Development party (AKP) face their greatest political challenge yet.
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Amid an economic crisis, and months after earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people and displaced millions more, today’s elections – presidential and parliamentary – will decide who leads the country where it heads next.
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Erdoğan has championed religious and conservative social values at home, while asserting Turkey’s influence in the region and loosening its ties with the west.
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Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the secularist Republican People’s party (CHP), is standing for the six-party Nation Alliance. He has pledged to prioritise justice, corruption and education.
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In the presidential election, any candidate who wins more than 50% of votes in the first round is elected president. If no one secures a majority, the election goes to a runoff – due on 28 May – between the two leading candidates.
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In the parliamentary elections, the number of seats a party wins in the 600-member parliament is directly proportional to the number of votes it receives, providing it gets – alone or as part of an alliance – at least 7% of the national vote.
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of what many of the world’s media and pundits have had no hesitation in describing as the most significant election of 2023.
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It’s easy to see why: Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader for the past 20 years of a country of global economic and strategic importance, could be on the way out.
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Polls increasingly show Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the unity candidate for six opposition parties, with a narrow lead over Erdoğan – possibly scoring above the 50% needed to win outright.
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Over two decades, an increasingly authoritarian Erdoğan has taken control of many of Turkey’s institutions – including much of the media and judiciary – steadily sidelining his opponents.
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Kılıçdaroğlu aims to reverse many of those policies, including Erdoğan’s all-powerful executive presidency, return power to parliament, slash inflation and improve relations with the west.
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The stakes are high: Turkey, a country of 85 million people at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, could continue its democratic slide, or reverse the damage.
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We’ll be bringing you all the latest news as it happens: polls close an hour from now, at 5pm local time (2pm GMT), and we could have an early indication of the result by 9pm local time.
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Key events
Ruth Michaelson and Deniz Barış Narlı are in Istanbul for the Guardian. Ruth has just sent this early despatch on the atmosphere as Turks went to the polls:
The mood at some of the polling stations in Istanbul was sharply divided, with AKP voters stating they were determined to re-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and rebuffing concerns about the economy or the risk he could lose.
Many mentioned a need for the country to remain united despite the deep political polarisation that has overtaken Turkey throughout the past decade and fears that Erdoğan or his Justice and Development Party (AKP) could demand people take to the streets if they lose, or if the vote is close.
“We will do what justice and fairness require,” said 51-year-old Veysel Isinal, asked if he would take to the streets if the AKP demanded it. “I believe the president will win re-election – if he doesn’t that would be bad for the country.”
Younger voters, however, were determined to vote for anyone other than Erdoğan or the AKP: a group in their mid-20’s standing in the middle of Erdoğan’s home district in Istanbul, where he campaigned just yesterday, said Gen-Z would be the generation to end his twenty-year reign.
Kurdish voters, courted by opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, were jubilant about the prospect of ending Erdoğan’s reign. “This time he’s going,” one said, laughing happily with several friends who had turned out to vote.
The basics: who is standing, and how do the votes work
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Justice and Development party (AKP) face their greatest political challenge yet.
Amid an economic crisis, and months after earthquakes killed more than 50,000 people and displaced millions more, today’s elections – presidential and parliamentary – will decide who leads the country where it heads next.
Erdoğan has championed religious and conservative social values at home, while asserting Turkey’s influence in the region and loosening its ties with the west.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the secularist Republican People’s party (CHP), is standing for the six-party Nation Alliance. He has pledged to prioritise justice, corruption and education.
In the presidential election, any candidate who wins more than 50% of votes in the first round is elected president. If no one secures a majority, the election goes to a runoff – due on 28 May – between the two leading candidates.
In the parliamentary elections, the number of seats a party wins in the 600-member parliament is directly proportional to the number of votes it receives, providing it gets – alone or as part of an alliance – at least 7% of the national vote.
The year’s most important election?
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of what many of the world’s media and pundits have had no hesitation in describing as the most significant election of 2023.
It’s easy to see why: Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader for the past 20 years of a country of global economic and strategic importance, could be on the way out.
Polls increasingly show Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the unity candidate for six opposition parties, with a narrow lead over Erdoğan – possibly scoring above the 50% needed to win outright.
Over two decades, an increasingly authoritarian Erdoğan has taken control of many of Turkey’s institutions – including much of the media and judiciary – steadily sidelining his opponents.
Kılıçdaroğlu aims to reverse many of those policies, including Erdoğan’s all-powerful executive presidency, return power to parliament, slash inflation and improve relations with the west.
The stakes are high: Turkey, a country of 85 million people at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and the Middle East, could continue its democratic slide, or reverse the damage.
We’ll be bringing you all the latest news as it happens: polls close an hour from now, at 5pm local time (2pm GMT), and we could have an early indication of the result by 9pm local time.