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President Erdoğan leads Turkey’s election, headed into runoff

Turkey’s presidential election will be decided in a runoff, election officials said Monday, after incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pulled ahead of his chief challenger, but fell short of an outright victory that would extend his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade.

The second-round vote scheduled for May 28 will determine whether the strategically located NATO country remains under the president’s firm grip or can embark on a more democratic course promised by his main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

While Mr. Erdoğan has governed for 20 years, opinion polls had suggested that his run could be coming to an end and that a cost-of-living crisis and criticism over the government’s response to a devastating February earthquake might redraw the electoral map.

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