Shortly before the presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey, officials beefed up security measures for candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival wore a bulletproof vest during his campaign appearance yesterday.
In addition, the head of the centre-left opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) was accompanied by bodyguards armed with assault rifles to the speaker’s balcony, which had not happened before.
According to a high-ranking member of the CHP, the party has received information that the top candidate may be attacked. He did not give more details.
The chances of replacing Erdogan increased
According to recent polls, Kilicdaroglu and his six-party electoral alliance stand a better chance of replacing Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years, on Sunday. Some 64.3 million Turks – including six million first-time voters – were invited to vote.
Whoever gets more than 50% of the votes on the first ballot becomes the new president. If neither candidate succeeds in doing so, the two best placed candidates will compete against each other in a run-off two weeks later.
In addition to Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu, there is now only one presidential candidate. According to observers, the nationalist Sinan Ogan has no chance of winning and should only withdraw votes from Erdogan.
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