Turkish election body confirms Erdogan’s victory in runoff vote

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s election board has certified the results of the May 28 presidential runoff election. It confirmed that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been a dominant force in Turkish politics for the past two decades, won a third term as president. He took 52.18% of the votes, while his challenger, main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, garnered 47.82%. Already Turkey’s longest serving leader, the 69-year-old Erdogan, 69 now can govern until 2028. Erdogan faces a host of domestic challenges, from a battered economy to pressure for the repatriation of millions of Syrian refugees and the need to rebuild after a devastating earthquake in February that killed 50,000 and leveled cities.