Turkey’s Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Ahmet Eşref Fakıbaba said that in the 2019 presidential election, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should get no less support than what Russian President Vladimir Putin recently received, the t24 news website reported on Sunday.
“Why Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? Where was Turkey 15 years ago, where is she now? Putin got 76 percent support [in the presidential election]. I will be sad if we [the ruling Justice and Development Party(AKP)] get 74.99 in the presidential election. We should get over 75 percent of the vote,” Fakıbaba said during a visit to a provincial AKP office.
Erdoğan has made an election alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) ahead of elections in 2019, which will be first polls to be held after the Turkish people by a small margin approved a change in system from parliamentary to presidential in a referendum in April 2017.