Neither the president nor his rival Kılıçdaroğlu secured more than 50% of vote in closely fought national poll
Turkey’s presidential election is going to a runoff after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan comfortably defeated his chief rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu but failed to clear the 50% vote threshold needed to avoid a second round.
The 69-year-old conservative incumbent confounded pollsters’ predictions and his secular rival to win the first round of the country’s pivotal election, scoring 49.51% against Kılıçdaroğlu’s 44.88% with a small number of overseas votes left to count. The runoff will take place on 28 May.
