The tone is being raised ahead of the presidential election in Turkey – perhaps especially by opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
The second round of the election will be decided on Sunday and in the first, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who also looks to have the upper hand before the decision – won.
– Kilicdaraglu is now clearly saying that they should drive out all Syrians above all, if he wins the election, says Terese Cristiansson, TV4 Nyheternas’ correspondent on the ground in Gaziantep, Turkey.
At the election meeting last night, opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu took aim at Turkey’s serious economic problems. The country’s currency, the lira, reached new lows yesterday.
Kilicdaroglu said he will return to a “normal economic policy,” instead of Erdogan’s line of refusing to raise interest rates when inflation rises.
“Fear that the opposition will win”
According to Kilicdaroglu, the migration situation must change drastically, in order to keep the country economically afloat.
– In areas that we are in, where there are a lot of Syrians, there is a fear that the opposition will win, says Terese Cristiansson.
Who will win the presidential election in Turkey is expected to be clear during Sunday evening or night – but the formal announcement may not come until a few days later.
On May 14, Turkey held presidential and parliamentary elections. 64 million were eligible to vote, of which 61 million live in the country.
When the votes were counted, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had received 49.5 percent of the vote and challenger Kemal Kiliçdaroglu 44.9. The third presidential candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 5.2 percent.
Since no one secured more than 50 percent of the vote, a second election round will be held on Sunday, May 28. Then the battle is only between Erdogan and Kiliçdaroglu.
The country’s largest party, the AKP, founded by Erdogan, has ruled Turkey since 2002. But after a period of economic instability and accusations of increasingly authoritarian rule, support has waned.
Ahead of the May 14 election, most of the opposition came together in a broad coalition of parties from widely varying backgrounds.
Presidential candidate Kiliçdaroglu leads the largest party in the opposition, the CHP. The party was founded by the father of the country, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and traditionally describes itself as secular and social democratic.
Source: TT