Alwaght- Turkey’s election body has confirmed the outright victory of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the June 24 presidential polls, saying he won almost 52.3 percent of the vote according to final results.
The publication of the final results kicked off a sequence of events that will culminate on July 9 with Erdogan’s swearing-in for a second mandate with sweeping powers.
Erdogan won over 26.3 million votes -- 52.59 percent -- in the June 24 elections, the head of the Supreme Election Committee (YSK) Sadi Guven said.
His final percentage was higher than when he was first elected as president in August 2014 with 51.79 percent of the vote.
The president’s chief rival from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Muharrem Ince, won 30.64 percent of the vote, Guven told a televised press conference in Ankara.
In his second mandate, Erdogan will have expanded powers under an executive presidency after constitutional changes were approved in a referendum last year.
Turkey has issued a decree, giving more power to the president as the country moves towards adopting a full-fledged presidential system.
The Official Gazette announced the decree on Wednesday. The decree closes down the prime minister’s office and changes “references to the prime minister and cabinet of ministers to the president and the president’s office.”
It has also enabled President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bypass the parliament in forming and regulating ministries and removing civil servants.
The laws changed by the decree had been in effect since 1924.
Last year, the public took part in a referendum, voting in favor of changing the country’s ruling mechanism from a parliamentary system to a presidential one.
Critics accuse Erdogan of trying to monopolize all power since July 2016, when the government survived a coup.
Ankara has either arrested or expelled hundreds of thousands of civil servants since the putsch, which it blames on Fetullah Gulen, a US-based cleric and Erdogan's arch rival.
