Erdogan's poll triumph leaves Turkiye divided; Lira hits record low

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and supporters on Monday revelled in an election victory lengthening his rule into a third decade while Türkiye’s opposition, which once counted on winning, braced for “difficult days” against an increasingly autocratic government.
 

His rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu said it was “the most unfair election in years” but did not dispute the outcome, which gave Erdogan a mandate to pursue policies that have polarised Türkiye and strengthened its position as a regional military power.
 

The election had been seen as Erdogan’s biggest political challenge, with the opposition confident of unseating him and reversing his policies after polls showed a cost-of-living crisis left him vulnerable.
 

But he prevailed with 52.2 per cent of the vote to Kilicdaroglu’s 47.8 per cent. It reinforced Erdogan’s image of invincibility in the deeply divided Nato-member country, whose foreign, economic and security policy he has redrawn.
 

Pro-government newspapers, part of an overwhelmingly pro-Erdogan media landscape that buoyed his election campaign in the nation of 85 million people, cheered his victory. “It’s a good result because Tayyip Erdogan is a good leader, he knows what the people want. If people have been voting for him for 20 years, he must be a successful leader,” said Altay Sahin, a construction worker in Istanbul.
 

Addressing supporters in a victory speech, Erdogan declared democracy the winner. “Now is the time to put the disputes and conflicts of the election period to one side and unite around our national goals,” he said.
 

But the prospect of five more years of Erdogan rule was a harsh blow to an opposition which accused him of undermining democracy as he amassed ever more power — a charge he denies.
 

The lira slipped to a record low of 20.09 against the dollar. It has lost 90 per cent of its value in the last decade, buffeted by currency crisis and rampant inflation. Its most recent losses were driven by uncertainty about what an Erdogan win would mean for economic policy. Critics have blamed his unorthodox, low interest-rate economic blueprint that the opposition had pledged to reverse, for the currency’s woes. Reuters