Turkey set for runoff as Erdogan falls short

The president won 49.5% of the votes with nearly all the ballots counted

Turkey will hold a runoff vote to determine if president Recep Tayyip Erdogan extends his time in power into a third decade. Although Erdogan was leading the race by 2 million votes, it wasn't enough to secure more than 50% of the ballot and avoid a second round. Another vote on 28 May will pit him against top rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, who's backed by Turkey's broadest-ever grouping of opposition parties.

Erdogan won 49.5% of the votes, while Kilicdaroglu secured just under 45% support with nearly all the ballots counted, Turkey's High Election Board said on Monday. Another contender, Sinan Ogan, received 5.2% and was eliminated from the race.

A runoff would be the first under the current electoral system and suggests a more divided electorate than in 2018, when Erdogan won in the first round. That was the first vote under the new executive presidency Erdogan set up that extended the role's powers and which critics say eroded Turkish democracy.