Erdogan likely to win in first round of Turkey’s presidential election

Istanbul: Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is likely to win in the first round of the presidential election by a small margin, polls by the Areda and Asal research centers have indicated.

Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections are set to take place on May 14. The second round, which will take place if no candidate gains 50 per cent of votes, is scheduled for May 28.

Since May 4, pollsters are obliged to specify who ordered and funded their surveys to release them.

Areda’s survey showed that 51.3 per cent of respondents are ready to vote for Erdogan this Sunday, while 44.2 per cent are going to support Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the main opposition candidate. The third candidate, Sinan Ogan, could receive almost four per cent of the votes.

The alliance of the ruling Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party will gain over 51 per cent of votes, according to the poll.

Asal’s poll predicted that Erdogan would receive 50.6 per cent of votes, and Kilicdaroglu 46.3 per cent.

The survey by Areda was conducted among 25,000 people from May 11-12. It has become one of the first opinion polls conducted after Muharrem Ince, another presidential candidate, announced his withdrawal of his candidacy three days before the election.

The centre did not provide information on the source of funding and the margin of error. Asal’s survey was conducted among over 2,000 people from May 10-12. After Ince’s withdrawal, the pollster contacted respondents again to clarify the results. The survey’s margin of error amounted to 2.5 per cent.