Turks to vote in historic elections today

ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan and his main challenger, Muharrem Ince, made a final push for support at rival rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, a day before presidential and parliamentary elections widely viewed as the most crucial in Turkey for decades.

The winner of Sunday’s presidential contest will acquire sweeping new executive powers under a constitutional overhaul backed by Erdogan and endorsed last year by a narrow majority of Turks in a referendum.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for 15 years, first as prime minister and since 2014 as president, praised the executive presidency that comes into force after the election. "God willing, Turkey will start flying with this system...With this system, we will achieve what others cannot imagine," he told tens of thousands of supporters at a rally in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, the first of five planned for Saturday.

Erdogan, 64, also promised to deliver more of the big infrastructure projects that have characterised his time in power and helped make him the most popular - if also the most divisive - leader of modern Turkish history.

But with Turkey’s economic woes mounting, partly due to the lira currency’s sharp decline, Erdogan and his ruling, Islamist-rooted AK Party, are facing an unexpectedly strong challenge from a revitalised opposition.

Ince, a former teacher and the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP), has proved highly effective on the campaign trail, drawing huge crowds, especially in the big cities.

On Saturday police said at least one million people had turned out in Istanbul’s Maltepe district to hear Ince promise to reverse - if he wins the presidency - what he sees as Turkey’s turn towards more authoritarian rule under Erdogan.

Ince also repeated his accusation - made by other opposition politicians too - of political bias by Turkey’s state media, which has given Erdogan and the AK Party heavy coverage while often neglecting to broadcast opposition rallies. "There are 5 million people in Maltepe right now but none of the TV channels can show it," he said.

That figure could not be independently verified, though images circulating on social media showed vast crowds of people assembled to hear Ince speak.