Turkey’s close-run presidential election will go to a runoff after neither candidate secured an outright majority, election officials confirmed Monday. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 49.5 percent of the votes, putting him ahead of the main opposition candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, with 44.9 percent, according to official preliminary results. Turkey’s Supreme Election Council said the runoff will take place on May 28, with both sides remaining buoyant about their prospects in the second round. Erdogan has been in power for 20 years and will claim another five years in office if he’s successful in the next round, which will be the first presidential election runoff in Turkey’s history. He won his last two races in 2014 and 2018 in the first round by large margins.
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