https://yournews.com/2023/05/29/2579602/turkeys-erdogan-triumphs-in-election-test/
ANKARA, May 29 (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan and his supporters on Monday celebrated an election win extending his rule into a third decade while Turkey’s opposition, once optimistic of winning, braced for “difficult days” against an increasingly autocratic government.
His opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu said it was “the most unfair election in years” but did not dispute the outcome, which gave Erdogan a mandate to pursue policies that have polarised Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power.
The election had been seen as Erdogan’s biggest political challenge, with the opposition confident of unseating him and reversing his policies after polls showed a cost-of-living crisis left him vulnerable.
But he prevailed with 52.2% of the vote, to Kilicdaroglu’s 47.8%. It reinforced his image of invincibility in the deeply divided NATO-member country, whose foreign, economic, security and foreign policy he has redrawn.
Pro-government newspapers, part of an overwhelmingly pro-Erdogan media landscape that supported his election campaign in the nation of 85 million people, cheered his victory.
“The man of the people won,” the Sabah newspaper headline said. “We opened the door to the Turkish century.”
“Victory is Erdogan’s again, the winner is Turkey,” said the Hurriyet daily alongside a photo of the huge crowd which gathered outside the presidential palace in the capital Ankara overnight to hear his triumphant speech.
“The winner is our democracy,” Erdogan told the crowd. “Now is the time to put the disputes and conflicts of the election period to one side and unite around our national goals.”
The lira slipped to a record low of 20.065 against the dollar. It has lost 90% of its value in the last decade, buffeted by currency crisis and rampant inflation.