Turkey election: Erdogan’s chance of winning goes up as Sinan Ogan pledges support
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got a major boost towards a successive presidential term after Sinan Ogan, the third-placed presidential election candidate, assured his support to the incumbent president.
Ogan announced his support for Erdogan in a press conference in Ankara on Monday.
The support for Erdogan from Ogan, who received 5.17 per cent of votes in the first round of the presidential polls on May 14, comes ahead of the scheduled runoff vote between the incumbent president and the opposition’s Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Erdogan received 49.52 per cent of votes in the first round, with a five-point lead over Kilicdaroglu.
Why is Ogan supporting Erdogan?
This is because the incumbent president has promised to take forward some of Ogan’s key campaign promises. Ogan had put in the condition of his endorsement of either candidate on strong immigration policies and some Kurdish groups he has described as terrorists.
Asked why he did not support National Alliance’s candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Ogan said that the National Alliance “failed to convince” his party of their key agendas related to immigration and counter-terrorism.
Ogan claimed that Turkey was at a “critical juncture,” and laid out four priorities he said needed to be addressed urgently.
First is the issue of refugees and migrants in Turkey, he said, as per CNN. Second, the “urgent national security threat” following the recent earthquakes. Third, the economic problems “caused by domestic and foreign dynamics that have caused deep issues in the public.” And fourth, the fight against terrorism in Turkey, which he said needed to be “addressed on all fronts, including financially.”
Who is Sinan Ogan?
Sinan Ogan has been described by the Turkish media as a ‘fringe, ultranationalist politician’. The Ancestral Alliance nominated Ogan as its presidential candidate.
Ogan’s support for Erdogan has put him in the position of being the kingmaker.
The Ancestral Alliance has now announced that each political party within it will make a decision, on backing either Erdogan or Kilicdaroglu, on its own.
The main party within the alliance, the Victory Party, is expected to make an announcement on Tuesday.
