World leaders congratulate Turkish President Erdogan on reelection 'victory'

By Burak Bir and Beyza Binnur Donmez

ANKARA (AA) - The leaders of Qatar, Hungary, Somalia and Pakistan were among the first heads of state and government on Sunday to congratulate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is leading in the presidential runoff election.

"My dear brother, congratulations on your victory, and I wish you success in your new term, and that you achieve in it what the brotherly Turkish people aspire to in terms of progress and prosperity," Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said on Twitter.

Hungary's Viktor Orban also congratulated President Erdogan "on his unquestionable election victory!"

"Congratulations brotherly and friendly Türkiye," Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud's office tweeted.

In his congratulations note, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif described Erdogan as "one of few world leaders whose politics has been anchored in public service."

Erdogan is leading in the runoff election with 53.41% of the vote, while opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 46.59%, with 75.42% of the votes counted, according to Ahmet Yener, chairman of the Supreme Election Council (YSK).

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, thus triggering presidential runoff, although the incumbent Erdogan took the lead with 49.52%.​​​​​​