Turkey Election – Erdogan declares victory in historic Turkish elections

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared victory in the country’s key presidential election, a result that will allow him to keep his seat with increased powers and become Turkey’s first executive president.

With nearly all of the votes counted, Erdogan secured an outright majority of 52.5 percent on Sunday, according to results released by state-run Anadolu Agency.

“Our people have given us the duty of carrying out the presidential and executive posts,” he said in a short televised speech, citing unofficial results.

The 64-year-old also declared victory for the People’s Alliance, a bloc between his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), saying they had won a parliamentary majority in the legislative elections, also held on Sunday.

Erdogan, who has ruled Turkey for more than 15 years as prime minister and president, later addressed a crowd of cheering, flag-waving supporters from the top of a bus in the country’s largest city of Istanbul, before taking off to the capital, Ankara.

“I thank God for showing us this beautiful day,” Ahmet Dindarol, 35, told Al Jazeera, as he joined in the celebrations in front of the AK Party headquarters in Istanbul.

“We elected Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the first executive president of Turkey. We prayed so much for him,” he added.

“Things will get better from now on. There will be less bureaucracy and more investments. The foreign powers who are playing games on Turkey’s economy got their response,” he said.

Erdogan’s closest rival, Muharrem Ince, of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), received 30.8 percent of the votes, according to Anadolu Agency.

He was followed by Selahattin Demirtas, of the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s Party (HDP), at 8.1 percent and debutante right-wing IYI (Good) Party’s Meral Aksener, at 7.4 percent.

All three major opposition parties accused Anadolu Agency of manipulating the results and releasing them selectively, a claim dismissed by the government.

“I hope nobody will try to cast a shadow on the results and harm democracy in order to hide their own failure,” Erdogan said in his speech.

Official results are to be announced in a few days.

More than 56 million voters were eligible to cast their ballots in the elections, which were brought forward by more than 18 months by the AK Party-controlled parliament in April.

Turnout exceeded a massive 87 percent.

Source: Aljazeera.com