On Sunday evening, Turkish state media declared Erdogan the winner of the election, and he thus embarked on a third decade at the helm of the country. It became clear around 7:30 p.m. Norwegian time.
After the tally of 98.2 votes, the figures showed that Erdogan had won 52.1 votes, while his rival Kemal Kiliçdaroglu had obtained 47.9% of the votes.
Throughout the evening, the two candidates hovered around the 50% figure, and it was only when nearly 90% of the votes were counted that Erdogan began to step down.
At 9:30 p.m. Sunday evening, the Electoral Commission confirms that Erdogan has won the election.
– People are scared
– Would be surprised
It is not the official Turkish Electoral Council that publishes the figures during the count, but Erdogan’s supporters. It is therefore impossible to verify whether the measurements published along the way were completely correct.
– In any case, it would be very surprising if Erdogan did not win this round of the election. I guess I didn’t think the round of elections was particularly exciting.
So says Einar Wigen, professor of Turkish studies at the University of Oslo.
He describes election night itself as highly conducive to media coverage and believes it is clear that the president’s supporters are doing a lot to keep control over the results and how they are reported.
– It is difficult to assess the reality of the results along the way. But it is abundantly clear that they have a political function on election night, he says.
– A privileged relationship
The fact that it is the party organizations that transmit the election results to the media means that there is a problematic bias in the whole process, believes the professor, who adds that the state news agency is based on figures from the ruling AKP party, so that the president and his supporters can dominate the presentation of the results
– If the opposition observers are not able to do their job of checking the count, there is always a risk of fraud for the benefit of the president. There is something problematic about the way the ruling party and its supporting media have power over the counting process and the dissemination of results.
– It has to be part of the game, he adds.
In front of the AKP party headquarters in Istanbul, the festivities have already started on Sunday afternoon. Several waved Turkish flags and shouted Allahu Akbar, which means God is the greatest.
The Eternal Power of Propaganda
Polarization and headlines
When asked how much the final result can be trusted, Wigen replies that it is difficult to judge its reality.
– The fact that the ruling party and the president’s supporters are so keen on keeping control over the release of the figures is interesting in itself. It’s a show of force. A number of conclusions can be drawn from this, but it is not certain that they are all correct, he says and adds:
– Maybe it’s just to show that “we have the power”, or that they don’t believe they’re actually going to win.
Erdogan is a president with a relatively narrow political agenda, Wigen recalls. It is therefore unlikely that there will be any major changes for the country in the future when it comes to the political landscape.
– He’s gone from one crisis to another, and success is largely about finding a newsworthy and polarizing case – rather than finding the solution to a problem. It works very well, but has little political content.
Erdogan mocks: – Liar
– Power trumps everything
The result is that the president has few political principles on his agenda, but he has the most important: power.
– It also seems to some extent that voters are worried about Turkey looking strong. They are happy that everyone has to talk about Erdogan and Turkey all the time, because it means they are big and important. It seems to trump everything, says Wigen.
When asked what can be expected of the president in the coming period, the professor replies that one should not ignore the fact that the tensions that existed before the election were rather an electoral campaign tool.
– The election is the goal, and many of the petty squabbles and lines of contention they raised up front don’t need to be so big anymore.
Attract attention – again
Erdogan has been president since 2014 and prime minister since 2003. His regime is considered authoritarian and he has passed laws granting him expanded powers.
Kilicdaroglu, of the CHP party, for his part promised more democracy and a number of other reforms.
In the first round, Erdogan got 49.4% of the vote, while challenger Kilicdaroglu got 44.9. As no one received more than half, the election moved to a new round.
