Turks in Switzerland back opposition presidential candidate

The vote is seen as one of the most important in Turkish history Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Were the Turkish president elected only by Turkish voters living in Switzerland, his name would be Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The Turkish opposition candidate won 57.6% of their votes, clearly more than current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 40.3%.

The third candidate, Sinan Ogan, received 1.4% of the votes and Muharrem Ince 0.7%, the Turkish embassy in Bern told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Monday. These results were provisional, it added.

Turnout among the 106,000 eligible voters in Switzerland was 56.8%.

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Turks were able to cast their votes at three locations: at the embassy in Bern, at the consulate in Geneva and in Zurich. Erdogan won in Geneva, Kilicdaroglu in Bern and Zurich.

A different picture emerged in the parliamentary elections: Erdogan’s AKP party won 30.4% of the votes of Turks living in Switzerland. Kilicdaroglu’s CHP got 26.2% and the YSP, a pro-Kurdish green party, 25%.

Second round

Overall, Erdogan led comfortably on Monday after the first round of Turkey’s presidential election, with his rival facing an uphill struggle to prevent the president extending his rule into a third decade in a runoff vote on May 28.

With most votes counted in the presidential contest, Erdogan had 49.51% and Kilicdaroglu 44.88%.

Turkish assets weakened on the news, which showed Erdogan only just below the 50% threshold needed to avoid sending the NATO-member country to a second round of a presidential election viewed as passing judgment on his autocratic rule.

Critics fear that Erdogan, a veteran of a dozen election victories, will govern ever more autocratically if he wins another five-year term. Erdogan says he respects democracy.