After longtime leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced into a second round with only a narrow lead over his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a runoff election will take place on May 28.

After all ballots had been opened, Turkey’s Supreme Election Council found that neither candidate had the necessary 50 percent to win the presidency. The council chairman, Ahmet Yener, stated that all of the country’s ballot boxes had been opened, and the voter turnout rate was 88.92 percent.

Be that as it may, Kilicdaroglu presently faces an intense fight to win the second round after Erdogan performed better compared to some assessments of public sentiment had proposed.

The chairman of Turkey’s supreme election council, Ahmet Yener, stated that the official final results for the election in Turkey would be made public on Friday.

With the last count, the electorate will go to a second round of casting a ballot that could expand Erdogan’s 20-year grasp on power, or set up for a shift in political course. Erdogan declared that he was “already ahead” of his “closest competitor.”

By 2.6 million votes, we are already ahead of our closest rival. With official results, we anticipate this number to rise,” he added.

He went on to say that although his team does not yet know “if the presidential election is over in the first round,” they “believe we will finish this round with over 50% of the votes.”

In the months leading up to the election, the leader of the Justice and Development (AK) Party faced a barrage of criticism for overseeing an unconventional fiscal policy that has thrown the nation into a cost of living crisis and facing accusations of negligence in the wake of the devastating earthquake on February 6. His choice to keep up with close relations with Russia in the midst of the Kremlin’s conflict in Ukraine has additionally caused grinding with NATO partners, after he hindered demands for Finland and Sweden’s promotion to the overseas military union. He battled on a pronouncement supporting the steadiness of his long rule, free international strategy and bringing down the retirement age.

Kilicdaroglu, who leads a coalition of six opposition parties in the upcoming election, has promised to change Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning policies in favor of a secularist political slogan and a solution to Turkey’s economic woes.

In a video message posted to Twitter, Kilicdaroglu stated that he “will fight until the end.”

“I swear I will battle until the end. I. Am. Here,” he said in the video, which he delivered following the declaration that a spillover vote will be hung on May 28.

Prior he invited the possibility of a spillover vote and said his party would win.

Factor determining

Although supporters of both candidates asserted that momentum was on their candidate’s side, a crucial third factor may determine the outcome of the runoff.

Ogan, the 55-year-old extreme right up-and-comer, has sufficient help from the main round to swing the vote in either Erdogan or Kilicdaroglu’s approval, contingent upon whom he decides to support.

At a press conference in Ankara on Sunday, Ogan said, “There will be another difficult 15 days ahead.”

“We will do everything in our power to make this process beneficial to our nation and our nation.” We are not announcing our support for either party at this time.

He told Reuters on Monday that he would not make any concessions on “sending refugees” to their home countries if he formed an alliance with either wing. Turkey’s decision to accept asylum seekers from Syria has become a major topic of political debate in Turkey.

“We have certain boundaries when it comes to supporting any candidate, like fighting terrorism and returning refugees. In remarks made prior to the announcement of the runoff, Ogan stated, “We have voiced these conditions previously.”

“If we decide to join an alliance, we will sign a protocol with them and say that we will not make any concessions to the (pro-Kurdish) Peoples’ Democratic Party,” we say.

Ogan guaranteed the resistance has not acquired the edge votes because of absence of certainty from citizens.

I believe that the opposition is failing to instill sufficient voter confidence, which is why the election goes to a runoff. The resistance can’t console individuals that they can take care of Turkey’s concerns. I’d say the resistance is the one that was generally impacted by the (February 6) seismic tremors,” he added.