President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted by Turkish media as saying on Wednesday (1st) that the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections will take place on May 14 as scheduled, despite concerns that election officials might find it challenging to set up the polls in areas devastated by the recent earthquake that left over 45,000 people dead.
In a speech to legislators from his ruling AK Party, President Erdogan said, “This nation will do what is necessary on May 14, God willing,” according to Turkish media.
The election was originally scheduled for June 18, but President Erdogan surprised everyone by moving it up to May 14. This is against a backdrop of him losing support and his government receiving harsh criticism for how it handled the disaster.
President Erdogan is currently serving his second term in office after being re-elected in 2018. 2014 saw his first election.
The president was steadfast and declared that the election would proceed as planned on May 14. The earthquake had raised some rumours that the president would change the election date to the original June 18 or to another date.
Of the 85 million people living in the nation, 14 million are in the earthquake-affected provinces.
Source: Turkish news media