There will be another round in the Turkish presidential election. This was confirmed by the Turkish election authority on Monday.
To win the election, a candidate needs to get 50 percent of the vote, a percentage that neither incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu managed to achieve in Sunday’s election.
Majority of votes for Kilicdaroglu
In Sweden, however, Kemal Kilicdaroglu appears to have received a majority of the votes. When just over 94 percent of the votes are counted, he has 53.62 percent, while Recep Tayyip Erdogan has the same share he got from the Swedish exile Turks in the 2018 election – 44 percent.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s success in Sweden is partly due to the fact that the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party urged its voters to vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the election, says Paul Levin, director of the Institute for Turkish Studies at Stockholm University.
– There are quite a few active Kurds in Sweden who vote. So the combination of them and Turks supporting the Republican People’s Party, CHP, gave Kemal Kilicdaroglu a majority, says Paul Levin.
Erdogan favorite in Germany
However, in Germany, where most exiled Turks live, Erdogan has the most support. When 98 percent of the votes are counted, he has just over 65 percent of the foreign vote, while Kilicdaroglu has 32.61 percent.
According to Paul Levin, there is traditionally a larger proportion of critical exile Turks in Sweden than in many other countries. Something he believes is due to the fact that Sweden has a large proportion of asylum seekers. In Germany, on the other hand, the overwhelming majority of those with a Turkish background are labor migrants.
– They tend to be more politically conservative, so Erdogan and the AKP have a traditionally strong voter base there, says Levin.
In Sweden, there are just under 39,000 Turks entitled to vote. With a few votes left to be counted on Tuesday night, close to 13,000 votes have been registered. A low turnout, Paul Levin believes, but at the same time higher than in the last election.