President Rajab Tayyab Erdoğan has an edge in the preliminary results of the elections held in Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to be in a strong lead after nearly 20 percent of ballots have been counted in Turkey’s national election. According to the news of ‘Anadolu’ agency, Erdoğan got 55 percent of the votes while the leader of the main opposition party Kemal Kilikdaroglu got 39 percent of the votes. Voting took place on Sunday for the parliamentary and presidential elections, which are considered very important in Turkey, which is battling with the economic crisis and the dissolution of the democratic system.

There is a possibility of a tough fight in this election and it is being considered as the biggest challenge for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his two decades in office. The election results will determine whether Erdoğan stays in office for another five years or the country moves down a path that major opposition parties are calling more democratic. Earlier opinion polls had said that Kilicdaroglu, 74, leader of the Republican People’s Party and the candidate of the United Opposition Alliance, could have a slight lead. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the votes, the top two candidates from the first round will have a decisive contest on May 28. Over 6.4 crore voters including 34 lakh people settled abroad were eligible to vote in this election.

Kilicdaroglu’s six-party coalition, the Nation Alliance, has pledged to end the executive presidential system and return to parliamentary democracy in the country. He has also promised to restore the independence of the judiciary and the central bank, strike a balance, and lift restrictions on free speech and dissent that had been put in place under Erdoğan’s rule.

Disclaimer:Prabhasakshi has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.