it s six in the morning in singapore, and one in the morning in turkey where voting has closed in one of the most critical elections. the country is deciding whether president erdohan remains in power after 20 years. it is expected to be a close race between him and an opposition leader kemal k l cdaroglu. he is a former civil servant who heads an alliance of six opposition parties, both secular and islamist. he promised to scrap many of the powers acquired by mr erdogan and return turkey to a parliamentary system. and also called for better relations with the west including renewal of turkey s bid for membership of the eu. the current leader recep tayyip erdogan first came to power as prime minister in 2003 and became president in 2014. under him turkey enjoyed strong economic growth, but it s been hit by high inflation, and the recent earthquakes in which tens of thousands died. he s also become increasingly authoritarian with more powers in the hands of the president,
if president recep tayyip erdogan should remain in power after 20 years may end in a run off vote. the islamic party of the incumbent president erdogan is being challenged by a secularist candidate, kemal kilicdaroglu. both men have dismissed the other side s claims to be in the lead. counting has continued throughout the day. this is one of the country s most critical elections. the country is dealing with soaring inflation, and is still reeling from two earthquakes in february in which more than 50,000 people died. these are live pictures from the streets of turkey where people are awaiting a result. let s cross live to our middle east corrrespondent anna foster, who joins us from outside the governing ak party s headquarters in the turkish city of adana. voting has been going on for quite a while now, we have had one side claiming they are in the lead and then the other side, so i suppose it shows usjust then the other side, so i suppose it shows us just how tight it is? i
palace. he s meeting his french counterpart, emmanuel macron. a statement from the elysee palace said mr zelensky and mr macron will discuss french military and humanitatian support for ukraine. it s mr zelensky s third visit to a major european power this weekend. he was in germany earlier and on saturday he was in rome meeting italian leaders. live now to france where we can join hugh schofield our paris correspondent for more on zelensky s visit. we heard a big announcement from germany about nearly $3 billion worth of aid on his visitjust before his visit to germany but are we expecting anything similar, any similar announcements from france? not that we have been led to believe, that is all i can say. there will be some kind of official press statement at the end of this dinner in a couple of hours and it may be that there is mention of more munitions and arms from france to ukraine but we have not been led to suspect that will happen in any major way. suspect that will
Earlier. I think the results of send a very clear signal to policymakers because just after nine months of the president ial elections, support for the current Policy Makers has declined significantly. And this is mainly i think because of the high inflation and persistent inflation and declining Purchasing Power of the middle class and lower income classes, that is i think the main reason of declining support for the policymakers. Do you think that this rebuff at the polls will tie president erdogan s hands when it comes to reforming the economy . I think the signal is well received by the the policymakers because both the Finance Minister and president erdogan reiterated that the current policies will continue, so it means that they will continue to rebalance the economy and return back to Sustainable Growth for the turkish economy. When we look at the Market Reaction today for these announcements, the markets have also the scenario, so the markets took it as a positive sign. Do you
People just overwhelmingly happy. His supporters at the huge election win that he pulled off. With more than 99 of the ballots counted this morning. His win stands at 11. 49 over his main akp rival. And so people you know, i was talking to them and so many people, interestingly, you know, are excited, didnt want to go have their voices recorded. But many people saying that this marks really a Turning Point for istanbul and they say for the country, because this shows that mayor imamoglu could stand potentially against president erdogan if there are a number of constitutional changes or whomever he might face, whatever akp candidate as president. But people saying the economy is far and away the biggest concern and this, they hope, marks a Turning Point to fixing that and making their living situations easier. The long awiated arrival of Self Driving Cars appears to be hitting some speed bumps. It turns out theyre much harder to introduce than expected. So were seeing more hands free Dr