June 25, 2018; Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won the Turkey’s presidential election with an absolute majority with 90% of 59 million eligible voters participation.
Erdogan brought forward the elections from November 2019.
Opposition parties and NGOs had deployed up to half a million monitors at ballot boxes to try to prevent possible electoral fraud.
Erdogan will start a new five-year term with new powers that was won in a referendum last year.
“Under the new system, the office of prime minister is abolished, parliament's powers curtailed and the president is accorded wide-ranging executive authority”, reported CNN Turkey on June 25, 2018.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the constitutional amendments "is important for our stability and economic development."
President Vladimir Putin in a government statement "stressed that the outcome of the vote fully confirms Erdogan's great political authority, broad support of the course pursued under his leadership towards solving vital social and economic tasks facing Turkey, and enhancing the country's foreign policy positions."
“Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics since his rise as prime minister in 2003 and has transformed the nation. He implemented policies that encouraged sustained economic growth and development, he challenged Turkey's secular foundations by bringing Islamic conservatism to public life and he gutted public institutions by having tens of thousands of people -- many of them his critics -- arrested after a failed military coup in 2016.” Reported CNN.
Erdogan’s principal challenger, Muharrem Ince, showed concern about the changes in the constitution saying, "We're now in a one-man rule - there's no mechanism to prevent arbitrary rule. We continue to have great concerns about this situation."
But jubilant Erdogan said in a victory address, "The winners of the June 24 elections are Turkey, the Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed in the world,"
"Turkey has decided to take the side of growth, development, investment, enrichment and a reputable, honorable and influential country in all areas in the world," and, "I would like to congratulate our nation once again. This has been another test of democracy and we have passed this test successfully," he said.
