Recep Tayyip Erdogan becomes the country’s first popularly elected president
By A.Z. | ISTANBUL
TURKEY’S prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured with his wife), became the country’s first popularly elected president yesterday, marking his ninth consecutive electoral victory during 12 years in power. He received 52% of the vote, averting the need for a runoff. The strong result will have a profound impact on the future of Turkey’s shaky democracy.
In a victory speech at the headquarters of his Justice and Development (AK) party in Ankara, Mr Erdogan declared that this was the “start of a new era”, signalling his intentions to continue to rule the country from the presidential palace and to give Turkey a new constitution that would, among other things, give him executive powers.
As president Mr Erdogan pledged to embrace all citizens regardless of their ethnicity or creed. “The national will” would now find its voice in the presidential palace, he roared. Mr Erdogan’s critics recall that he made similar promises in the past. Throughout his campaign Mr Erdogan struck an unabashedly polarising tone, taking aim at the Alevi faith of the main opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and the ethnic Zaza roots of his Kurdish rival, Selahattin Demirtas.
None of this fazed his supporters, who turned up to vote for him in droves though at 74% turnout was sharply down on the 89% recorded in the local polls on March 30th. Voter apathy among supporters of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and mass defections to AK among the nationalists helped clinch Mr Erdogan’s victory. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the 71-year-old academic-turned-diplomat, who was fielded as a joint candidate by the CHP and the nationalists, failed to inspire, trailing with 38% of the vote.
Mr Erdogan’s next step is to convene an AK party congress on August 27th to elect a successor before he formally takes over as president. This will enable him to have full control over who steps in his shoes. The most likely contender is the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. He has the sort of Islamic credentials and charisma to keep the party base together—and won’t dare to challenge Mr Erdogan’s leadership.
But these plans may be upset by the outgoing president. Abdullah Gul, an AK party co-founder, is one of Mr Erdogan’s main rivals. This was on show when Mr Erdogan failed to mention Mr Gul even once during his speech. At a farewell reception today, Mr Gul announced that he planned to return to AK. Mr Gul, a former foreign minister, has a stainless reputation, and is widely acknowledged as the driving force behind the reforms in the early days of AK rule. Ali Babacan, the economy czar widely credited for years of robust growth and fiscal prudence, and other party heavyweights, who have fallen afoul of Mr Erdogan, may well defect to the Gul camp.
Another unknown is how the Kurds will use their stellar performance at the polls. Mr Demirtas, whose newly formed People’s Democracy, a hotchpotch of Kurds, leftists, liberals, pious Muslims, Alevis and Christians, doubled his party’s share of the vote in Istanbul and Izmir and trebled it in Ankara, bagging 9.7% nationwide. AK does not command enough seats in the parliament to make the constitutional changes needed to give Mr Erdogan new executive powers. The Kurds were widely expected to support these in exchange for political concessions. Now that Mr Gul has thrown his hat in the ring, Mr Erdogan’s plans for a French-style strong presidency may go awry.
