The upcoming presidential and legislative elections in Turkey will take place on May 14 as declared by the country’s president.
The declaration was made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who intends to run for re-election, on Saturday addressing a youth convention in the Bursa province of northwest Turkey. On Sunday, a video of the incident was made public.
Erdogan, who had alluded to the date last week, stated, “I thank God that we are destined to share our path with you, our beloved youth, who will vote for the first time in the elections that will be place on May 14.”
He stated in Bursa that the official announcement would be made on March 10 and that the Supreme Election Council of Turkey would thereafter start organizing the elections.
A second round of voting would take place on May 28 if no candidate received more than 50% of the vote.
Erdogan, the yet-to-be-named opposition candidate, has been in office since 2003, first as prime minister and then as president since 2014. He is currently facing his toughest test in his 20 years as the leader of the major NATO member, regional military power, and emerging market economy.
A presidential candidate has not yet been announced by the six-party opposition alliance. The third-largest party in parliament, which is pro-Kurdish, has so far been left out of the alliance and has indicated it may run a separate candidate.
The 68-year-old Erdogan has been held accountable by the opposition for Turkey’s economic crisis and the loss of civil rights and liberties, claiming that the new system of administration equates to “one-man tyranny.”
Erdogan enacted a new form of government in 2018 that eliminated the position of prime minister and gave the president the majority of the executive branch’s authority. Before it, the presidency was primarily a ceremonial position. The presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day under the new system.
Elections for the president and parliament were originally slated for June 18, although Erdogan has already hinted that the poll could be moved up. Election day in June would fall during the busy travel season of the summer, according to a former official of his AK Party.
