Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu Head to Runoff in High-Stakes Turkey Election

Turkey's presidential election remains uncertain as President Erdogan leads his main opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, by a narrow margin but below the 50% mark needed to win outright in the first round. A runoff round for the presidency between the two will take place on May 28 if the results are confirmed by Turkey's Supreme Election Board. Erdogan's government was accused of lax enforcement of building codes and a slow disaster response, worsening the effects of the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey in February. The election has the potential to remake geopolitical alliances as the war in Ukraine drags into a second year and Arab states normalize relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government after a civil war in which hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, most of them by his forces.