By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL- Polls have officially closed in Turkiye in the second presidential runoff election and Supreme Election Council Chairperson Ahmet Yener said election results on a minute-by-minute basis are being shared with 24 political parties. Yener added that after 6:15 p.m. the media will be able to start reporting initial poll results. TRT World shows the latest results at 6:25 p.m. local Turkish time as 55.80% for Erdogan and 44.20% for Kilicdaroglu with more results coming in. This election has brought up the debate about what democracy means in Turkiye and rumblings about what some Turks feel didn’t happened under President Erdogan’s presidency which analysts say explains the divide in Turkiye on the presidential vote.Just over 40 percent of the national tally of polls has been counted, according to TRT World. Meanwhile, the first round of voting on May 9, Kilicdaroglu won 30 provinces to Erdogan’s 51 provinces. Most analysts have predicted a win for Erdogan based on the first round of voting that took place two weeks earlier. TRT World reporting from the quake region in southeastern Turkiye found that a number of voters tend to vote based on their family’s voting history while others vote based on observation. Either way, this election has been highly debated since Erdogan has been ruling Turkiye for 20 years since 2003. The divide originates in the fact that a lot has changed in terms of people’s viewpoints with a lot more young people able to vote and major events in Turkiye as well as Turkiye’s influence in the world
