UPDATE - Turkish President Erdogan leads election with 53.4%: Supreme Election Council

ADDS NEW DETAILS, UPDATES FIGURES, ADDS CELEBRATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS; REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, DECK

By Burak Bir and Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is leading Sunday’s runoff election with 53.41% of the vote while opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 46.59%, with 75.42% of votes nationwide counted, according to the head of the election authority.

Ahmet Yener, chairman of the Supreme Election Council (YSK), gave the official results of the vote count so far to reporters in the capital Ankara.

More than 64.1 million Turkish citizens were registered to vote, including over 1.92 million who earlier cast their ballots at overseas polling stations.

Nearly 192,000 ballot boxes were set up for voters across Türkiye.

On May 14, no candidate won the required 50% in the first round, which triggered Sunday’s presidential runoff, although the incumbent Erdogan took the lead with 49.52%.​​​​​​

Erdogan’s People’s Alliance also won a majority in parliament on May 14.

Responding to Erdogan’s lead and likely victory on Sunday, his supporters across the country started taking to the streets to celebrate.

Congratulations also began coming in to Erdogan from world leaders, including the leaders of Pakistan, Qatar, Hungary, and Somalia.