CALLING IT

Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan Claims Election Victory in Unofficial Results

The leader made a televised speech before the official numbers were announced.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory in the nation’s elections on Sunday, despite conflicting reports of how many votes had actually been counted, according to The New York Times. Official results show Erdogan with more than 52 percent of the vote, which is enough to avoid a second round of elections against second-place challenger Muharrem Ince. “Turkey has given a lesson of democracy with a turnout of close to 90 percent. I hope that some will not provoke to hide their own failure,” Erdogan said in a televised speech, wherein he also claimed victory for his party in the country’s parliamentary elections. While state-run news agency Anadolu said that 93 percent of the vote had been counted, an opposition party chairman claimed that only 56 percent had been counted, with 40 million ballots left to go. Erdogan has been leader of the country since 2002, and has taken international criticism for his statewide crackdown on the press and government after a coup attempt in 2016.