President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu both sealed landslide wins in their respective home cities in Türkiye’s historic presidential runoff, unofficial results showed Sunday.
Türkiye held its first runoff election after Erdoğan narrowly missed the necessary majority as some 2.5 million votes separated him and his opponent in the first round of the race on May 14.
With nearly all ballot boxes tallied countrywide on Sunday where over 61 million registered voters were called to polls, Erdoğan secured his 16th election win with 52.09% and defeated his opposition rival Kılıçdaroğlu who trailed behind with 47.91%.
In their hometowns, however, both leaders garnered massive support and managed to outperform each other.
In Erdoğan’s northwestern home city Rize, the president won 75.86%, translating to 173,248 votes, while Kılıçdaroğlu grabbed 24.14% support from some 55,145 voters.
In the opposition leader’s eastern homestead Tunceli, Kılıçdaroğlu secured 82.81% support from 47.112 voters while 9,778 people backed Erdoğan, amounting to 17.19% support.
Sunday’s results weren’t so different from May 14’s presidential and parliamentary elections as the candidates marked similar ratios in both cities.
On May 14, Erdoğan clinched 72.79% from 169,230 voters in Rize whereas Kılıçdaroğlu came away with 22.03% from 51,211 voters.
In Tunceli, Kılıçdaroğlu picked up 78.7% as Erdoğan pulled in 21.3%.
The first round of the presidential election also featured four candidates on the ballot despite third runner Muharrem Ince withdrawing from the race in a shocking move days before the vote over a defamation campaign against him by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
In Ince’s hometown Yalova on Sunday, Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu raced neck-to-neck, as Erdoğan grabbed 50.42% and Kılıçdaroğlu came close with 49.58%, similar to May 14 results where the two shared the votes with 47.74% to 45.42% respectively.
Ince himself had won 0.64% in Yalova from 1,113 people.
As for the easternmost province Iğdır, the hometown of the fourth independent runner Sinan Oğan, who placed third in the first round and subsequently endorsed Erdoğan for the runoff, Kılıçdaroğlu secured a comfortable win with 66.79% from some 63,319 voters and Erdoğan received 33.21% support.
Oğan himself had won 11.94% from 12,304 voters in his home city.
Akin to their presidential performances, the parties of Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu too marked similar rates in May 14’s parliamentary vote.
Independent of their respective alliance, Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) walked away with 53.4% of the vote from Rize, equaling two lawmakers.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s Republican People's Party (CHP) produced one lawmaker from Erdoğan’s home city with 21.46% support.
In Tunceli, however, the CHP failed to gain a majority as most voters voted 42.79% for the Green Left Party (YSP), which competed with the controversial Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a party known for its alleged aiding and abetting of the PKK terrorist group.
The YSP was the only one to produce a lawmaker from Kılıçdaroğlu’s hometown as the CHP picked up 32% and the AK Party took 13.22% of the votes.
Against a slew of criticism from AK Party supporters and the opposition base alike for implied “collusion with terrorists,” Kılıçdaroğlu enjoyed the endorsement of the HDP in both elections.
Meanwhile, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the AK Party’s partner in the People’s Alliance, drew 12.98% support in Erdoğan’s hometown Rize and some 5.6% in Kılıçdaroğlu’s home city Tunceli.
The second-biggest opposition party Good Party (IP), the CHP’s partner in the Nation Alliance, saw almost no discernible support in Rize but walked away with 2.26% in Tunceli.
Across the 600-member Parliament, the People’s Alliance now has the majority of 323 seats against the Nation Alliance’s 212 lawmakers.
