Turkey’s tense presidential election, which will conclude with a runoff between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, saw three elderly voters in three different cities tragically die of heart attacks on Sunday.
According to Hurriyet Daily News, the first unfortunate victim was 64-year-old Seref Kurt, who was working at a polling station in a school in the Black Sea province of Rize.
Supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrate at the AK Party headquarters on May 14, 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Kurt collapsed at his post around 9:00 a.m. local time. Despite onlookers providing emergency assistance and a speedy call for paramedics, he was pronounced dead of a heart attack at Kackar State Hospital later in the morning.
The second victim was a voter named Aysel Ulusoy, who local sources say was 75 years old. Ulusoy came out to vote with her relatives in another Black Sea province, Trabzon.
Ulusoy entered a voting booth in a mosque, but she collapsed while she was filling out her ballot. She was also pronounced dead of a heart attack at a local hospital.
The third victim was Ibrahim Yildiz, 85, who was voting at a school in the northern city of Giresun when he collapsed. As with Ulusoy, Yildiz became ill while he was in the voting booth and died while receiving medical attention. Hurriyet Daily News reported his official cause of death was a heart attack.
Pedestrians walk past a giant banner of Turkish President and People’s Alliance’s presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, at Taksim square in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
None of the three accounts directly blamed the hotly-contested election for causing the heart attacks, but turnout was heavy – almost 89 percent nationwide – and emotions ran high on all sides. Erdogan, who has held power for two decades, was seen as a slight underdog going into the election, but he ended up taking 49.5 percent of the vote to Kilicdaroglu’s 44.8 percent.
Since Erdogan did not pass the 50 percent threshold needed for an immediate victory, the race will be settled with a runoff on May 28 — the first runoff election in Turkey’s history.