Roving Periscope: Turkiye’s “Gandhi” may replace Islamist President Erdogan

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: Kemal Kilicdaroglu is popularly known as Turkiye’s “Gandhi” and also has an uncanny resemblance with veteran British actor Ben Kingsley who played the title role of the Mahatma in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 magnum opus, which won eight Oscars.

A century after Mahatma Gandhi supported the “Khilafat Movement”, which aimed to restore the Caliphate in the then Ottoman Empire (centered around Turkiye), another “Gandhi” in that country is attempting to replace Islamist President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the ongoing crucial election.

Interestingly, Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, also shares his first name with Turkish statesman Kemal Mustafa “Ataturk” (Father of the Turks) who ended the Caliphate and the Ottoman Sultanate in 1924 and established a progressive, modern Turkey which the present revanchist regime rechristened as Turkiye a few months ago.

Erdogan, 69, who was Turkiye’s Prime Minister (2003-2014) before becoming its President nine years ago, has turned the secular modern democratic country, a beacon of hope to other Muslim nations, including Pakistan, into an Islamist one. His rule is now being challenged by the new Kemal.

A day after the most crucial election in the modern history of Turkiye on Sunday (May 14), President Erdogan issued a conservative statement saying he is ready for a rerun election if necessary.

“We don’t know yet whether the election will be over in the first round, but if people take us to a second round, we will respect that too,” Erdogan said, adding that his ruling conservative alliance had gained a “majority” in Parliament, according to the media reports on Monday.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu retorted to this, saying the President had not received the expected outcome.

“Despite his smear campaigns and insults, Erdogan did not achieve the desired result. Nobody should get enthusiastic about a fait accompli,” Kilicdaroglu said.

“Election data are still pouring in. If our country decides on a runoff, we will gladly participate. We will undoubtedly win this election in the second round. Everyone will see it,” he added.

Sensing this transformation in the political scenario, Sinan Ogan, the third presidential candidate who has  now allied with Erdogan, took to Twitter on Sunday night to cast doubt over overseas votes and warn the Election Council to prevent “manipulation.”

“We have heard that some manipulations were carried out in the overseas vote counting processes. Vote counting is not done in a healthy environment. I warn the YSK. Take the necessary measures immediately and ensure that the vote-counting processes are carried out quickly,” Ogan said.

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, who is running for the Vice-President’s post as a candidate for the main Opposition Nation Alliance bloc, said state-owned news agency Anadolu‘s results were unreliable and that Kilicdaroglu was ahead of Erdogan.

Preliminary trends from pro-government areas appeared to give Erdogan an edge, but his lead appeared to be thinning as the counting of ballots progressed.

According to the latest updates, Turkiye is likely to hold a runoff election on May 28. Neither Erdogan nor Kilicdaroglu had reached the 50 percent vote threshold needed to avoid a second round.

With nearly 97 percent of ballot boxes counted, Erdogan led with 49.39 percent of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu had 44.92 percent, according to a media report citing Anadolu.

This year’s election was heavily focused on the economy, civil rights, and the devastating February earthquake that killed over 50,000 people. As a result, Erdogan’s failure to win outright is being interpreted as a verdict against his authoritarian tendencies. Under his rule, Turkey has emerged as one of the region’s most rigid and financially precarious nations.

In the run-up to the election, opinion surveys indicated the increasingly authoritarian leader narrowly trailed his chief challenger.