Turkey’s Erdogan tries to shore up support ahead of presidential runoff

Erdogan got 49.5 per cent in Sunday's vote and fell just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff in a vote seen as a referendum on his autocratic rule.

President Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday called Turkish voters to support him in a May 28 election runoff to maintain stability in Turkey, as he seeks to extend his rule into a third decade.

Erdogan got 49.5 per cent in Sunday’s vote and fell just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff in a vote seen as a referendum on his autocratic rule. His main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, received 45 per cent.

Turkish financial assets weakened for a second day, especially government and corporate bonds and banking stocks, as investors bet that Erdogan, 69, would win another five-year term and continue his unorthodox economic policies.

In a parliamentary election also held on Sunday, People’s Alliance, comprised of Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) and its nationalist and Islamist partners, won 322 of 600 seats in the new legislature, achieving a majority that enabled him to argue that voting for him will ensure stability.

Erdogan said that Turkey needs harmony between parliament and presidency for a functional governance.

“The strong presence of the People’s Alliance in parliament also makes us stronger as the government. The harmony between the executive and the legislature would help development of our country,” he said in an interview broadcast by CNN Turk.

A breakdown of the voting tallies showed the AKP came out on top even in 10 of the 11 provinces hit by February’s devastating earthquakes in southeast Turkey, in which more than 50,000 people were killed and millions left homeless.

Analysts said this outcome showed Erdogan’s promise to rebuild shattered cities had reassured voters in what were already mostly AKP strongholds.