ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turks began voting on Sunday in one of the most consequential elections in modern Turkey’s 100-year history, which will decide whether President Tayyip Erdogan extends his two decades in power.
Presidential and parliamentary votes are being held, deciding not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed and where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis.
Opinion polls give Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads an alliance of six opposition parties, a slight lead, but if either fails to get more than 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election on May 28.
(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by William Mallard)
