Turkey’s president and re-election candidate, Recep Erdogan, handed out cash notes to supporters waiting in line to vote in the second round of presidential elections this Sunday (28). After greeting people, Erdogan handed them 200 Turkish lira bills, the equivalent of R$50.
Erdogan has been in power for 20 years and is up against opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu. More than fifty-five million Turkish citizens voted in the first round of presidential elections, an electoral turnout of almost 87%, similar to the last Turkish election. Of those present, 49.5% of them voted for Recep Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey since 2003, either as prime minister or president, a period marked by Turkey’s democratic deterioration.
About 250,000 more votes and Erdogan would have been elected in the first round. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leading a broad front uniting twenty-four parties, including three of the top five in parliament, won 44.8% of the vote. In Turkey, most of the vote in the main urban areas, such as Istanbul and Ankara, went to the opposition candidate, as well as the vote in the southeast of the country, a region with a greater concentration of Kurds, a minority often chosen as a “national enemy” by Erdogan.
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