More than half (55.36%) of the country's citizens living outside Turkey supported Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday's presidential elections. CEC data released by the state-run Anadolu agency on Monday show this.
The opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 41.26% of the Turkish diaspora's votes. ATA Alliance candidate Sinan Ogan garnered 2.20 %. Muharrem Ince, who withdrew his candidacy, received 1.18% of votes. The Turkish CEC considers the votes cast for him valid.
The data was obtained following 67.33% of ballot boxes from foreign polling stations were opened. Turnout at the Turkish presidential elections abroad was 50.55%. More than 850 thousand representatives of the Turkish diaspora took part in the voting.
Erdogan won the support of most Turks in Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Serbia and several other European states. The current head of state is leading in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan and most of the Middle Eastern and North African countries. Meanwhile, the diaspora in Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Greece, and many Eastern European countries preferred his main opponent Kilicdaroglu. The opposition candidate won the majority of votes of the Turkish citizens in the United States, China, Russia, Japan, Georgia and Kazakhstan.
The presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey were held on Sunday, polling stations worked from 08:00 to 17:00. Voting was held with enhanced security measures. In total, more than 53 million people voted in the election.
The state-run TRT TV channel reported on Monday that with 99.96% of all ballot boxes opened, Erdogan gained 49.34% of the votes, while his main opponent got 44.99%. Ogan gets 5.23%. To win in the first round either of them needs to gain 50% plus one vote, otherwise there will be a second round on May 28.
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Based on materials from TASS