Turkish presidential election, 2014

Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014 in order to elect the 12th President. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.

The election took place under reforms resulting from the 2007 constitutional referendum, which introduced a direct national vote, rather than election by members of the parliament. Over 55 million people were eligible to vote, both within Turkey and abroad.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the AKP and Prime Minister since 2003 after winning the 2002 Turkish general election, won with 51.79% of the vote. Former Organisation of Islamic Cooperation General Secretary Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, who ran as the joint candidate of 13 opposition parties including the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), came second with 38.44%. The co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtaş, who received the backing of 8 left-wing parties, came third with 9.76%.

Erdoğan took over as president from Abdullah Gül on 28 August, while Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was elected leader of the AKP, succeeded Erdoğan as Prime Minister on the same date. It has been speculated that Erdoğan will continue to pursue his political agenda as president while Davutoğlu takes a docile approach as Prime Minister, breaking away from the ceremonial and neutral functions of the Presidency and potentially pursuing constitutional changes to turn Turkey into a presidential or semi-presidential system.

The election was criticised by both the political opposition and international observers for alleged media bias in favour of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, corruption allegations, the inaccuracy of opinion polls and the misuse of official public resources during Erdoğan's campaign. While praising the authorities for safeguarding the right to assembly as well as the peaceful electoral conduct, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) voiced concerns over the unequal distribution of campaign resources and media intimidation. The historic 12-year low turnout of 74.13%, attributed to the fact that the election was held in summer while many citizens were on holiday, was seen by many politicians such as MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli as a significant factor in affecting the outcome. The election loss for the opposition CHP resulted in its leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu taking the decision to hold a party convention with a leadership election in response to growing dissatisfaction against his electoral performance.

Background

The Law on Presidential Elections accepted and put into effect on 20 January 2012 decided that presidential elections will be held in 2014 instead of 2012; within 60 days before the end of the seven-year term of incumbent President of Turkey Abdullah Gül, who will be the last indirectly elected President of Turkey. As Gül took office on 28 August 2007, the first possible day could be 29 June, but a date between 10 and 17 August is considered more reasonable.

It was decided in the same law that former presidents Kenan Evren, Süleyman Demirel, Ahmet Necdet Sezer and incumbent Abdullah Gül could not be nominated for a second term, but this was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court of Turkey, allowing them to run for a second term. Also, the Prime Minister of Turkey could be nominated for the presidency without having to resign from his post.

The presidential-election campaigns were declared to be held in an "American manner", where candidates could accept personal donations for their campaigns; however, one person could not donate more than 8,259 TL (approximately US$4,500) to a campaign.

Official candidates

Three candidates were nominated to participate in the election. A more detailed list of parties that endorsed them can be found in the "List of parties by presidential candidates" section.

File:Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Poland (cropped).jpg, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, serving leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2001 and Prime Minister of Turkey since 2003, received 311 nominations.

File:Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (8406391100) (cropped).jpg, Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, former secretary general of the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) from 2004 to 2014 and potential AKP presidential candidate in 2007, received 163 nominations.

File:Selahattin Demirtaş (cropped).jpg, Selahattin Demirtaş, co-leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), received 30 nominations.

Parliamentary nomination process

To run for election, a candidate needs to be nominated by at least 20 Members of Parliament in the Grand National Assembly, which constitutes to 3.73% of all sitting members. The parties represented in parliament are the AKP, CHP, MHP, HDP, DBP and 14 independents, meaning that smaller parties such as the Felicity Party (SP) and the Great Union Party

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