A big moment for Erdogan-and Turkey

摘要

Critics of Turkey say its democracy is under threat, but it doesn't look that way at election time. Villagers are on the streets in their hundreds, city-dwellers in their hundreds of thousands, to listen to politicians' pitches. The country is covered in bunting. In recent elections turnout has been over 80%-higher than in most other European countries-and, although allegations of ballot-rigging are frequent, voting is mostly fair. The likely victor in the general election on June 7th is the ruling Justice and Development (ak) party, founded by the charismatic Recep Tayyip Erdogan, long-serving prime minister and now president. Polls suggest ak will get over 40% of the vote.