ISTANBUL: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led his secular rival with half the votes counted in Turkey’s runoff election, state media reported today, although his advantage was narrowing as more results came in.
Erdogan was winning with 55.8% of the vote with 55% of the ballots counted, while opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu had 44.2% of the vote, the Anadolu state news agency reported.
Turkey’s pro-opposition Fox news channel said most of the early votes counted by state media came from heavily pro-Erdogan regions in Anatolia.
A separate vote count published by the pro-opposition Anka news agency put Kilicdaroglu in the lead with 51% against Erdogan’s 49%.