2014 Turkish presidential election

2014 Turkish presidential election

← 2007 10 August 2014 2018 →
Turnout	74.13%
Candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu Selahattin Demirtaş Party AK Party Cross-party[a] HDP Popular vote 21,000,143 15,587,720 3,958,048 Percentage 51.79% 38.44% 9.76%
Results by province
President before election Abdullah Gül AK Party Elected President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan AK Party

Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014 in order to elect the 12th President.^[2] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.

The election took place under reforms resulting from the 2007 constitutional referendum, which introduced a direct national vote, rather than election by members of the parliament. Over 55 million people were eligible to vote, both within Turkey and abroad.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the AK Party and Prime Minister since 2003 after winning the 2002 Turkish general election, won with 51.79% of the vote. Former Organisation of Islamic Cooperation General Secretary Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who ran as the joint candidate of 13 opposition parties including the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), came second with 38.44%. The co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş, who received the backing of 8 left-wing parties, came third with 9.76%.^[3]

Erdoğan took over as president from Abdullah Gül on 28 August, while Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was elected leader of the AK Party, succeeded Erdoğan as Prime Minister on the same date. It has been speculated that Erdoğan will continue to pursue his political agenda as president while Davutoğlu takes a docile approach as Prime Minister, breaking away from the ceremonial and neutral functions of the presidency and potentially pursuing constitutional changes to turn Turkey into a presidential or semi-presidential system.^[4][5][6]

The election was criticised by both the political opposition and international observers for alleged media bias in favour of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, corruption allegations, the inaccuracy of opinion polls and the misuse of official public resources during Erdoğan's campaign.^{[7][8][9][10]} While praising the authorities for safeguarding the right to assembly as well as the peaceful electoral conduct, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) voiced concerns over the unequal distribution of campaign resources and media intimidation.^[11][12] The historic 12-year low turnout of 74.13%, attributed to the fact that the election was held in summer while many citizens were on holiday, was seen by many politicians such as MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli as a significant factor in affecting the outcome.^[13][14][15] The election loss for the opposition CHP resulted in its leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu taking the decision to hold a party convention with a leadership election in response to growing dissatisfaction against his electoral performance.^[16][17]

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