Candidate for re-election, Erdogan fulfills tradition and distributes money after voting in the 2nd round

The current president of Turkey and candidate for reelection Tayyip Erdogan distributed money to supporters after voting on Monday this Sunday (28). He disputes the second round of the elections against his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

A crowd was waiting for the chef of the Turkish executive and his wife when they left their polling place, in Istanbul. Erdogan held out his hand and distributed 200 Turkish lira notes — which is equivalent to R$ 50 — to his voters.

Giving money to the population on Election Day is an unthinkable public action in Western democracies, but it is a tradition of the Turkish president, who, on special occasions, such as Muslim holidays, also has the habit of distributing cakes for children.

Erdogan’s opponent, Kilicdaroglu, was also received by supporters at his polling place, in Ancara, the capital of Turkey. Their voters shouted “presidente do povo Kilicdaroglu” as the leader of the Turkish opposition left the polling station, cheering for the crowd.

The election could lead Erdogan to extend his government for a third decade and persist in the path of Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian, vigorous foreign policy and unorthodox economic governance.

Erdogan challenged the opinion polls and came out on top with an advantage of almost five points over Kilicdaroglu in the first round, on May 14.

But these two 50% were necessary to avoid a second turn, in a run with profound consequences for Turkey itself and for global geopolitics.

The supporters of Kilicdaroglu hope for a change in the leadership of the country. Voting starts at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. non-Brasília time) and ends at 5 p.m. (11 a.m. non-Brasília time).

Hopefully the result will become clear at the start of the night, local time. The voting locations were supposedly quieter in many places than there were for several weeks, when the turnout was 89%.

*Published by Flávio Ismerim, with information from CNN Portugal and Reuters.