Turkey’s presidential candidates make final appeals to voters

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The two candidates in Turkey’s run-off presidential election made their final appeals to voters on Saturday, a day before polls open.

Incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who secured 49.52 percent of the votes in the first round, and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who took 44.88 percent, will face off on Sunday since neither passed the required threshold of 50 percent. The third presidential candidate, Sinan Ogan, was eliminated after getting just 5.17 percent of the first round votes.

“For the last 21 years, Türkiye has been entrusted to us, and tomorrow we are entrusted to Turkey; our nation was entrusted to us, and tomorrow we are entrusted to our nation,” Erdogan tweeted before the electoral commission officially closed campaigning at 5 pm on Saturday.

In his final message, Kilicdaroglu, who is the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the candidate of six opposition parties known as Nation Alliance, posted a video on social media asking his supporters to remain by the ballot boxes to ensure a clean vote. Kilicdaroglu also accused Erdogan of censoring his campaign by using “all of the state’s resources.”

“Let he who loves his country, come to the [ballot] boxes,” Kilicdaroglu said.

Over 64 million people were eligible inside and outside Turkey to cast their votes in the May 14 first round election that saw a historic turnout of 87.04 percent. Around eight million voters did not cast a ballot.

Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu are both hoping to attract votes from Ogan’s supporters, which could be split. Ogan has chosen to back Erdogan, but his Ancestral Alliance said that was “a personal political choice” and announced it was supporting Kilicdaroglu.

On Wednesday, the Victory (Zafer) Party, which is the biggest party in the Ancestral Alliance and known for its anti-Kurdish and anti-refugee politics, signed a seven-point deal with Kilicdaroglu in which he promised to preserve articles in the constitution that protect the Turkish identity of the state and to send refugees back to their home countries in exchange for the alliance’s backing.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which supported Kilicdaroglu in the first round, expressed concerns about that deal, but still opted to renew their support for Kilicdaroglu, saying a change in the country’s presidency is necessary.

“The goal is to build a free, democratic and just regime that is free from discrimination and where people can participate in government,” HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan told reporters on Wednesday.

“We will go to the ballot box and together we will change the one-man regime,” she added, referring to Erdogan who has enjoyed executive powers since 2017.

Under Erdogan’s presidency, HDP has been under intense pressure with its leaders and lawmakers jailed on terrorism charges and thousands of its supporters arrested.