Turkey’s elections for presidency, parliament set to begin

By SUZAN FRASER and ZEYNEP BILGINSOY

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Voters in Turkey go to the polls on Sunday for pivotal parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces in his two decades in power. The vote will either grant the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan a new five-year term in office or set the NATO-member country on what his opposition contender calls a more democratic path. Erdogan’s main opponent is Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the 74-year-old leader of the center-left, pro-secular Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the joint candidate of a united opposition alliance. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the presidential race will be determined in a run-off on May 28.