Nation Alliance

Victory Party Chair Ümit Özdağ said on May 23 that his party will continue discussions with Republican People's Party (CHP) leader and Nation Alliance's presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on the issue of lending support for his candidacy in the presidential election runoff.

Sinan Oğan, the presidential candidate of the ATA Alliance who received around 5.2 percent of the votes in the first round, has announced that he will support President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the runoff elections slated for May 28.

Sinan Oğan from Ata Alliance, who received 5 percent of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections, is expected to announce his decision of who he will extend his support to in the upcoming presidential runoff on May 22.

The opposition Nation Alliance has said that it sees the upcoming presidential election runoff as a "referendum," making calls on people to vote for democracy.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has reiterated his calls for Turks living abroad to cast votes for the second round of the presidential elections as the four-day voting process for around 3.4 million eligible electors will begin on May 20.

Ballot boxes have been reestablished at Istanbul Airport and customs gates to allow voters living abroad to cast their ballots in the second round of the Turkish presidential election.

The watchdog placed more than 4,600 polling stations at 46 border gates.

Opposition Nation Alliance's presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has described the May 28 runoff voting as a brand new election, calling on the people to get mobilized for bringing a change to the country, and stated he received the messages conveyed by the people to him in the first round of the polls.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nation Alliance's candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu are both expected to target around 8 million citizens who chose not to vote on May 14 after failing to pass the 50 percent vote threshold in the first ballot and prompting the second round.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on May 18 that his government will continue to stand by the Feb. 6 earthquake victims.

"I hope we will heal our wounds together with state-nation solidarity. We will not leave our earthquake survivors unattended and will continue to stand by them," he tweeted.

But Kılıçdaroğlu faces a higher bar much in the second round. Erdoğan is only short of around 550,000 votes to win, if the turnout remains at around 88.92 per cent, as was the case in the first round. Kılıçdaroğlu needs to acquire at least 2.7 million more votes.