Turkiye’s Erdogan faces tough election amid quake, inflationANKARA: Early in his political career, a devastating earthquake and economic troubles helped propel Recep Tayyip Erdogan to power in Turkiye. Most opinion polls point to a slight lead by his opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the secular, center-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP. The political party founded by Erdogan in 2001 came to power amid an economic crisis and the Izmit quake. In the upcoming election, six parties have united behind his main opponent, Kilicdaroglu, despite their disparate political views. Some also are questioning whether Erdogan would agree to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose.
