Episode 2204
2023 Turkish presidential election
Tue, 2023-May-16 02:09 UTC
Length - 4:58
Direct Link
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With 273,158 views on Monday, 15 May 2023 our article of the day is 2023 Turkish presidential election.
Presidential elections are being held in Turkey in May 2023, alongside parliamentary elections, to elect a president for a term of five years. It is estimated that a total of 64 million voters have the right to cast their votes in elections, 60.9 million in Turkey and 3.2 million abroad. May 14 was chosen as the date for the first round as a testament to the 1950 general election, the first election in Turkey in which the founding and ruling Republican People's Party (CHP) was defeated. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan failed to secure an absolute majority in the vote, so a second round will take place between him and second-place finisher Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on May 28. Incumbent President Erdoğan of the Justice and Development Party (AKP or AK Party) ran for re-election as the joint candidate of the People's Alliance, which includes the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and three other smaller parties. The Nation Alliance, composed of six opposition parties including the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), fielded CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as its presidential candidate. The Alliance has committed to reverting Turkey's constitution back to a parliamentary system of government, away from the presidential system that has been in place since the 2017 referendum. Though not part of the alliance, the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP) and the Labour and Freedom Alliance (of which it is a member) endorsed Kılıçdaroğlu. Two other minor candidates, namely Homeland Party leader Muharrem İnce and anti-immigration ultranationalist Ancestral Alliance nominee Sinan Oğan, also reached the required 100,000 signatures to stand; however, three days before the election, İnce withdrew from the election citing consistent slander and smear campaigns against him by rival candidates, though he still appeared on ballots. The main campaign issues revolved around the deadly February 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake, which left over 50,000 people dead and threatened to postpone the election date. The government was criticised for its slow response to the earthquake and land amnesties prior to it that critics claimed left buildings more vulnerable. The economy, which has suffered a near-continuous crisis since 2018, also featured prominently due to the rapidly rising cost of living. In most polls, voters identified the economy as their prime area of concern. Campaigning was perceived to be highly divisive and negative, with LGBT rights in Turkey coming under particular fire by the governing alliance. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu claimed that an opposition victory would effectively be considered a coup d'etat, while the headquarters of the opposition Good Party (İYİ) was attacked by gunshots in late March. The Nation Alliance vice-presidential nominee and Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was attacked by a mob throwing rocks during a campaign rally in Erzurum, while the CHP Mayor of Antalya Muhittin Böcek was also attacked by pro-Erdoğan supporters during a campaign visit, leading to numerous injuries. Media coverage was deemed excessively biased towards the government alliance, which was estimated to control over 90% of the country's media outlets. In the first round, Erdoğan and Oğan outperformed expectations to receive 49.5% and 5.2% of the vote respectively. Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu won 44.9%, while Muharrem İnce (who remained on the ballot despite withdrawing) received 0.4%. Since Erdoğan's vote share was 0.5% short of winning outright, he and Kılıçdaroğlu will contest a run-off vote on 28 May.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 02:09 UTC on Tuesday, 16 May 2023.
For the full current version of the article, see 2023 Turkish presidential election on Wikipedia.
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