Turkish elections hashtag trends in Arab world

By Ibrahim al-Khazen

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections dominated Twitter across the Arab world.

The hashtag #President Erdogan was the top trending in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with over 215,000 tweets.

In Egypt, the hashtag #President Erdogan had been used in more than 213,000 tweets, followed by hashtag #Turkish elections with 80,000 tweets. The two hashtags were also the top trending in Qatar.

Erdogan hashtag was the most popular in Morocco, Bahrain and Iraq with more than 216,000, 214,000 and 215,000 tweets respectively. It was also the most trending in Jordan and Yemen.

Millions of Turkish voters went to polls on Sunday to elect the country’s next president and members of its 600-seat parliament.

The first round of voting ended with no candidate able to clear the required 50% threshold, but incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the lead, said Ahmet Yener, head of the Supreme Election Council, citing unofficial results.

Erdogan finished the first round with 49.51% of the vote, while his closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), came second at 44.88%, Yener said.

Sinan Ogan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance got 5.17%, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.44%, Yener added.

As no candidate was able to win an outright majority in Sunday’s vote, a second-round runoff will be held on May 28.

Voter turnout in Sunday’s elections was 88.92%, with turnout from Turkish citizens abroad at 52.69%, Yener said.

As for parliamentary elections, the People's Alliance, led by Erdogan's Justice and Development (AK) Party, and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), are poised to secure a majority of seats in the Turkish parliament after Sunday's polls.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar