Eliminated candidate gets behind Turkiye's Erdogan

Nationalist Sinan Ogan throws support behind incumbent for presidential vote

The likelihood of Turkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan winning another term in the presidential election runoff on Sunday has increased because of endorsement from the first round's third-place finisher.

Sinan Ogan, a nationalist who attracted 5.2 percent of the vote on May 14, said the second-place finisher in the first round — Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who leads Turkiye's center-left, pro-secular main opposition party — failed to convince him that he could do a better job than the incumbent.

"I declare that we will support Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the candidate of the People's Alliance, in the second round of the elections," The Associated Press quoted Ogan as saying on behalf of his party and members of his coalition. "We believe that our decision will be the right decision for our country and nation."

Ogan became a "kingmaker" after he was eliminated in the first round, Turkish newspapers said, with the power to put some distance between Erdogan, who leads an alliance of Islamic and nationalist parties, and Kilicdaroglu, his closest challenger for years. Both front-runners failed to secure a sufficiently large majority in the first round to automatically become president, with Erdogan claiming 49.5 percent of votes and Kilicdaroglu netting 44.9 percent.

However, Erdogan's ruling AK party and its allies in the People's Alliance secured enough votes to keep control of the 600-seat Parliament, which was another factor Ogan said he considered when deciding whom to support. The idea of backing a president who was out of step with Parliament did not appeal to him, he said.

"It is important that the newly elected president is under the same (leadership) as the Parliament," The Guardian quoted him as saying.

However, not all of Ogan's supporters will transfer their votes to Erdogan, analysts said, because many were interested in curtailing immigration into the country and could be tempted by recent hardline comments made by Kilicdaroglu.

"Mr Sinan Ogan's statement is his own political choice," Umit Ozdag, leader of the Victory party, which backed Ogan in the first round, said on Tuesday. "This statement does not represent the Victory party and does not bind the party."