Turkey's opposition presidential candidate said on Sunday 'we are leading' in initial election results in which President Tayyip Erdogan's 20-year rule was on the line, while opposition sources gave him a more than one percentage point lead.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, waves as he leaves the polling station after voting during the presidential and parliamentary elections, in Ankara, Turkey May 14, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman
ANKARA, May 14 - Turkey's opposition presidential candidate said on Sunday "we are leading" in initial election results in which President Tayyip Erdogan's 20-year rule was on the line, while opposition sources gave him a more than one percentage point lead.Separately, four sources from the six-party opposition alliance told Reuters that Kilicdaroglu was leading Erdogan by a narrow margin according to initial results.
The opposition mayors of Istanbul and Ankara also said Kilicdaroglu was on track for victory based on nearly a quarter of ballot boxes counted. They cautioned against relying on state-run Anadolu Agency results that gave Erdogan the initial edge. "We can say this comfortably: Mr. Kilicdaroglu will be announced as the 13th president of our country today," said Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a key opposition figure who would become a vice president were his side to win.
Earlier, Faik Oztrak, spokesman for Kilicdaroglu's Republican People's Party , said they were seeing a positive picture even as Anadolu showed Erdogan leading by 52% to 41% based on initial results.
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