A candidate must get more than 50% of the vote to win the highly charged race. As no one passed that threshold, the vote will go to a runoff election in about two weeks, on May 28.
With more than 99% of votes counted, Erdogan is ahead with 49.54% of the vote while his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 44.88%, according to Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK).
This is the first time in the 100-year history of the Republic of Türkiye that the elections have been extended to the second round. The voter turnout in the first round of this election was 88.92 percent.
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Erdogan leads with 54% votes in early results for presidency
Turkish opposition says voter turnout hit record-breaking 93.6%
