Erdogan gets 69% of Dutch-Turkish votes; Second round from Saturday

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received 68.76 percent of Dutch-Turkish votes cast in the Netherlands during the presidential elections in Turkey. His rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, received 28.52 percent of the vote, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported on its website. The election is likely headed to a runoff, and the Turkish stock market fell on the news.

The results of the presidential elections in Turkey are still pending a day after the election concluded. Erdogan has received 49.42 percent of the vote according to the latest polls. This puts him ahead of Kilicdaroglu, who has 44.96 percent of the vote. The third candidate, Sinan Ogan, is at 5.2 percent.

If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, a second round of voting will take place on May 28. Erdogan’s lead is not believed to be big enough to win it in a single round.

In total, about 123,275 of the more than 200,000 voters in the Netherlands cast their vote, according to Anadolu. That amounts to about 47 percent. If there is a second round, Dutch-Turkish people eligible to vote will be allowed to cast a ballot for the second time from May 20 to 24.

Almost all votes have now been counted. More than 64 million people were allowed to vote in Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Erdogan’s AK party appears to be the largest, Turkish media reported, followed by Kilicdaroglu’s centre-left Republican People’s Party.

It was to be expected that the battle would go to a runoff between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu. The two were the most popular presidential candidates according to the latest polls before the election. Kilicdaroglu even polled higher than the incumbent president at one point.

Kilicdaroglu has been put forward as a candidate by six opposition parties. These parties do not agree with each other in many areas, but have united in the hope of finally defeating Erdogan. Erdogan has been in power for 20 years. First as prime minister and since 2014 as president.

The stock market in Istanbul fell Monday morning due to uncertainty about the future of the country. Stock traders are calling the situation one of the “worst outcomes for the markets.”

Trading in Istanbul was halted for 30 minutes after share value fell by over 6 percent at the opening. Turkish banks took a particular hard hit. The losses were slightly recovered after the resumption of trading, with Turkey’s main index down over 4 percent.

The value of the Turkish lira fell slightly against the U.S. dollar. However, currency traders told Bloomberg news agency that the lira’s exchange rate was supported by purchases from state-owned Turkish banks.

The Turkish currency has fallen to record lows in recent years, while inflation in the country is very high. This is largely due to the unorthodox ideas about interest rates and price increases that Erdogan supports. Under Erdogan, who tightened his grip on the central bank, interest rates fell precisely to curb the skyrocketing inflation. Normally, interest rates are raised to curb inflation.

His main challenger, Kilicdaroglu, has promised voters that the central bank will resume normal monetary policy. However, even if Kilicdaroglu wins, a further fall in the value of the lira is possible because the currency may then no longer be supported by government interventions. And if the central bank regains its independence, it will probably start with interest rate hikes that put a brake on economic growth.