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Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been elected as the President of Turkey for the third term. In the second round of elections held on Sunday, he won privately by getting 52.12 percent of the votes. His rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu has so far received 47.88 percent of the vote. A total of 98 percent of the votes have been counted so far. Al-Jazeera news

Supreme Election Council (YSK) chairman Ahmet Yener announced the results of the vote counting in the capital Ankara. Earlier, voting started at 8 am and ended at 5 pm. This is the first runoff in the history of Turkey.

In the first round of voting on May 14, Erdogan won 49.52 percent, Kilicdaroglu 44.88 percent and Sinan Ogan 5.17 percent. As no one got more than 50 percent, the vote rolled in the second round. 88.84 percent of the 64 million voters cast their ballots.

Presidential candidate Sinan Ogan, who came third in the first round of voting, later endorsed Erdogan.

Erdogan has been in power in Turkey for 20 years. Before 2014, the president was elected by parliament. Erdogan, 69, has led Turkey since 2003. He served as Prime Minister first, President since 2014. Then he reformed the regime. In 2017, through a referendum, the parliamentary system was centered on the president and the post of prime minister was abolished.

In Turkey, the president can serve two terms in a five-year term. As his first term ended due to the 2017 referendum, he was able to run for a third term this year. Erdoğan will serve as president until 2028 as he won this time.