Presidental Elections to held on May 14 in Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that elections will be held on May 14, as planned previously, just over three months after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 45,000 people in Turkiye.

Speaking in the Parliament from his ruling AK Party, Erdogen said, “This nation will do what is necessary on May 14, God willing.” The President of Turkey who has been in power for more than 20 years has been drawing a lot of flak recently and the earthquake situation has further intensified the negative sentiments of the people against him.

Earlier he was criticized for the soaring inflation in the country which has negatively impacted the standard of living of the people.

The earthquake that happened in Turkey last month has costed  the lives of 45,089 people and injured 108,000 people while the toll in Syria has risen to 51,000. Apart from the loss of human lives, more than 200,000 buildings had been destroyed or seriously damaged due to the earthquakes. This earthquake is being termed as one of the deadliest ever.

The Turkish President had defended the state’s response to the earthquake by saying it had been caught up in “a storm of earthquakes”. He said, “We will build better buildings in place of those which collapsed. We will win hearts and we will unroll a new future in front of our people.” He had also promised to rebuild homes within a year however that seems too good to true at the moment.