The election in Turkey is over.
Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared himself victorious.
According to Turkish media, he gets about 52 percent of the vote.
On Sunday, the Turks went to the polling stations to vote in the second round. The election was between the two main candidates for the presidency, incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.
After an evening of conflicting information about which of Erdogan and Kiliçdaroglu was actually the best, the sitting president was able to declare himself the winner at half past eight.
– The only winner is Turkey, he said in a speech from a bus roof in Istanbul.
When 99.4 percent of the votes are counted in Sunday’s second round of the presidential election, Erdogan provisionally receives 52.1 percent of the votes, against 47.9 for challenger Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, reports CNN Türk.
Both Hungarian President Viktor Orban and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have congratulated Erdogan on the victory.
At 9:30 p.m. on Sunday, the first official greeting came from Sweden, when Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M) congratulated Erdogan on the election victory and wrote that “our common security is a future priority” on Twitter.
The news agency also reports that supporters of the president have taken to the streets to celebrate.
When the president gave his winning speech, he began by singing to the audience on site, writes the BBC. He also took the opportunity to thank the people who voted for him.
Vote counting is in progress
The counting of votes is still ongoing and the official figures when all votes are counted will be published by Turkey’s election authority.
Incumbent President Erdogan’s popularity has fallen sharply since the last election – in previous elections he easily received over 50 percent of the vote already in the first round of elections.
This year, a second round of elections was thus required after none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the vote.
Mikael Sahlin, former ambassador to Turkey, tells TV4 Nyheterna that the economy and the refugee issue are some issues that Turkey will now put a lot of focus on.
– It is obvious to everyone that the Turkish economy has ended up in a situation that is totally unsustainable, he says, adding that the country risks “an economic blow”.
He also underlines that there are problems with the same president remaining in office.
– As for the prospects for democratic development in Turkey, it is now put on a five-year hiatus, he says.