(Ankara) – The head of Turkey’s election commission said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the country’s first direct presidential election. Sadi Guven said that “it is understood that Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won an absolute majority of the votes.”
He said no ballots would be printed for a runoff, which would have been necessary had no candidate won an absolute majority in the first round.
The main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, got just below 40 per cent. Ihsanoglu conceded defeat to Erdogan. Unofficial results based on Turkish media counts put Erdogan at about 52 percent after more than 95 per cent of the ballot boxes were counted. An absolute majority was needed for victory in the first round.
