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Runoff looms over Turkey’s horizon: Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu trade barbs over vote tally

Both presidential election contenders Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the opposition’s candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu claimed to take the lead early on, and took to Twitter to comment on the vote count, as projections show Turkey headed to a run-off election.

Erdogan wrote on Twitter in the first public comment since the polls closed: “While the election was held in such a positive and democratic atmosphere and the vote counting is still going on, trying to announce results hastily means usurping the national will.”

He called on his supporters to stay by ballot boxes at polling centers “no matter what, until the results are officially finalized.”

Meanwhile, Kilicdaroglu said on Twitter: “We will not sleep tonight, my people,” and warned that all ballots should be included in the count.

Both camps of Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu had earlier claimed to be coming out on top based on the early projections.

However, the vote tally reported by official state media seems to be headed towards an outcome where neither candidate secured at least 50 percent of the vote. That translates to holding a run-off election two weeks later on May 28.

The early official tally showed Erdogan leading Kilicdaroglu with a wide gap, however, as more ballots were counted, Erdogan’s overall share of votes continuously shrunk while Kilicdaroglu’s increased.

So far, state news media Anadolu Agency and TRT World reported that Erdogan stood at 50.13 percent and Kilicdaroglu stood at 44.09 percent based on 88.33 percent of all ballot boxes.

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