PM Erdoğan asks citizens to put presidential poll before vacation

Prime Minister and presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on citizens to cut their vacations short if necessary to cast their votes in the upcoming presidential elections.

“I request my brothers and sisters who have come to Antalya for vacation to take a break off their vacations on Aug. 10,” Erdoğan said at a campaign rally on July 12 in the Mediterranean coast city of Antalya. “They should go and cast their votes. Tomorrow, their children will ask them. No one should miss this historical event,” the prime minister said. 

The first round of the election for the country’s first-ever publicly elected president will be held on Aug. 10. If no candidate receives the majority of the votes, top two candidates will run in the second round on Aug. 24.

Erdoğan, nominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is running against Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, nominated jointly by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and People’s Democratic Party (HDP) co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

In his speech, Erdoğan also reiterated that the Kurdish peace process will continue uninterrupted if he is elected to the post, once again promising to be an active president.

“With a president elected by the people, Turkey will rise, freedoms will widened and the peace process will progress with determination,” he said.