ISTANBUL: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday prepared for the challenge of leading Turkey as a strongman president after winning an election in the first round albeit by a narrower-than-expected margin.
He vowed to build a “new Turkey” and reconcile a divided country in triumphant midnight speech before tens of thousands of supporters in Ankara, after taking almost 52 percent of the vote in Sunday’s poll.
As premier since 2003, Erdogan has sought to modernise Turkey and take a more assertive position on the global stage but is seen by many as increasingly authoritarian. Now the country’s first ever directly elected president, the Islamic-rooted leader will be inaugurated on August 28 and could serve two five-year terms, staying in power until 2024.
Attention will now turn to who becomes the next prime minister to take the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) into 2015 legislative elections.
AFP
