Today, Turkey is running for elections to end or extend into a third decade the era of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is running for re-election as president.

Mr. Erdogan, in power for twenty years, is seen as the favorite in this unprecedented second round of presidential elections, in which he faces social democrat Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Polling stations have opened and around 60 million voters in Turkey (the diaspora has already voted) can choose between the options presented by the candidates from 08:00 to 17:00 (local and Greek time).

On the one hand, the stability – and the risk of an authoritarian bias – of the outgoing 69-year-old Islamic conservative vice president, and on the other, a return to the parliamentary system proposed by his 74-year-old rival, a former senior civil servant.

The 49.5% of the vote Mr. Erdogan, the primarily devout Muslim former mayor of Istanbul, received in the first round on May 14 at least shows the broad support he enjoys despite sky-high inflation and costs. life crisis in a broader sense, despite the inadequacy of the actions of the conservative majority in relation to the terrible destruction caused by the February 6 earthquake.

This includes voters in areas hardest hit by the earthquake, which killed at least 50,000 people and displaced three million from their homes.

In contrast, Mr. Kilicdaroglu, a democrat dede (“grandfather democrat”), as the bespectacled white-haired economist likes to portray himself, has failed to capitalize politically on the economic crisis that is afflicting households and young people.

The chairman of the CHP – the Republican People’s Party founded by Mustafa Kemal, the founding father of the Republic of Turkey – promised a “return of spring”, a return to the parliamentary system, restoration of the independence of the judiciary, the central bank, the press.

“Enough of the oppression of the regime and its policies,” Uğur Barlas, a 39-year-old teacher from Ankara who will vote for the opposition candidate, said yesterday because he wants “change.”

However, Mr Kılıçdaroğlu, who fell short of more than 45% of the vote in the first round, is an underdog: despite persistent support from the pro-Kurdish HDP challenging his recent alliance with a tiny far-right, nationalist and xenophobic party, he is five years behind in opinion polls. points from the head of state, who also saw a renewal of the majority of his ruling alliance in the Turkish parliament on May 14.

One million viewers

Sluggish after the first round, looking devastated because he failed to secure the win his alliance took for granted, Kemal Kilicdaroglu resurfaced four days later, much more aggressive, much less smiling, a makeover than at the start of his campaign.

In the absence of systematic access to major media outlets, primarily state television channels that promoted the head of state’s election campaign, he fought battles on Twitter, while his supporters went to voters’ houses. , mobilize them.

The main stake in the second round is 8.3 million votes of citizens who did not vote in the first round, although participation reached 87%.

Faced with a characteristic Alevi – a member of a community that radical Sunnis call heretical – Erdogan delivered one campaign speech after another, touting the transformation of the country since he came to power, first becoming prime minister in 2003 and then president in 2014. year.

The Turkish head of state, who has already raised the minimum wage three times in a year, increased his gallantry during the election campaign, promising, among other things, free education for students who are children of families affected by the earthquake.

Today is “a special day for all of us,” he said yesterday, adding that “the time when we had coups and military juntas is over.”

Concluding his campaign, he paid a lot of symbolic visit: he went to the grave of his political idol, the nationalist-Islamist former prime minister Adnan Menderes, who was deposed and then hanged by the generals in 1961.

A not entirely pleasant coincidence for the president is the fact that the second round of elections is taking place exactly ten years after the start of the Gezi protests, which from the Istanbul park of the same name spread throughout the country. This was the first wave of challenges to Mr. Erdogan, which was met with harsh repression.

For 60-year-old pensioner Zerin Altaili, it is important that today’s elections be held “honestly”, “without falsifications.”

The opposition announced that it would send “five observers to each ballot box”, that is, a total of one million people, to monitor the progress of the process.

The first round of elections was a “competitive” but partly “limited” “unfair advantage” given by the state media to the head of state and his faction united by the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and the Council of Europe.

The results of the presidential elections will be announced in the evening and will be very carefully studied by Turkey’s allies, especially in NATO.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.