Washington denies electoral interference: “It is absolutely false”
May 16. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has celebrated the results of the presidential elections held this Sunday, in which, according to the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), he has obtained 49.51 percent of the votes, at the same time that he has accused the opposition and the United States from trying to interfere in the results.
“Our nation, despite the political engineering of the opposition, from Pennsylvania (the US state where President Joe Biden was born), the social networks and the covers of foreign magazines, has claimed its free will,” he celebrated through a statement on his Twitter account.
He has also promised to achieve a “historic” result in the second round, when he will face the opposition Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, backed by a coalition made up of six parties and supported by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), and who has made with 44.89 percent of the ballots.
The US INSISTS THAT IT HAS NOT INTERVENED IN THE ELECTIONS
In turn, the United States has stated that it continues to monitor the electoral process “closely”, while congratulating the Turks for managing to hold peaceful elections.
Deputy State Department spokesman Vedant Patel has responded to Erdogan’s accusations that he has repeatedly suggested that the Americans have worked with the opposition to overthrow him.
This, Patel has assured, is “absolutely false”: “The United States does not take sides in elections, and our interests are and will continue to be democratic processes.”
Erdogan, the Turkish politician who has been at the forefront of the country’s politics for the longest time – nearly 20 years between his tenure as prime minister and then as president – is seeking a third term amid opposition complaints about the unconstitutionality of the decision.
Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), aims to remove the president from power thanks to multi-party support and growing discontent over increased social repression and the economic crisis, deepened by high inflation. In addition, the February earthquakes, which left more than 50,000 dead, have damaged Erdogan’s image.