Erdoğan to appear with 9-year-old photo on ballot paper for presidential election

Turkish President Erdoğan will appear on the ballot paper for the May 14 election with the same photograph he appeared in the 2014 election.

Friday April 14 2023 02:56 pm

The ballot paper for the 2023 presidential election

Duvar English

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is running for the office for a third time, will appear on the ballot paper for the May 14 election with the same photograph he used for the ballot paper of the 2014 election.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has approved the ballot papers to be used in the Presidential Elections and the 28th Term Parliamentary Elections scheduled for May 14.

YSK President Ahmet Yener, together with YSK members and YSK representatives of political parties, examined the ballot papers together in a printing house, state-run Anadolu Agency reported on April 13.

The YSK requested six photographs from the presidential candidates, but did not require that they should be taken within a certain period of time.

A recent photo of Erdoğan on April 14, 2023 (AA)

In the 2014 presidential election, Erdoğan beat main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and then-opposition Nationalist Movement Party’s (MHP) joint candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) candidate Selahattin Demirtaş with 51.79% of the votes.

Erdoğan used the same photo in the 2018 presidential election as well

The parliamentary and presidential elections will be held together on May 14 in a historic year as 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

Four politicians are officially running in the presidential elections: ruling People’s Alliance candidate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, opposition bloc Nation Alliance’s candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Homeland Party leader Muharrem İnce and far-right ATA Alliance’s candidate Sinan Oğan.