Mahmoud Barakat
June 25, 2018•Update: June 25, 2018
By Khalid Mejdoub
RABAT
Moroccan officials and political commentators on Monday praised President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s historic electoral victory.
“They conspired against him, demonized him at home and abroad, established hybrid coalitions to overthrow him, and used unprecedented propaganda [against him] in the regional and international media,” Mohamed Majdoubi, a Moroccan political commentator, said on Facebook.
“But in the end, he decisively won the race with an absolute majority in the first round,” he added.
“And following his electoral win, Erdogan stressed his intention to continue raising his country’s status to that of a world power,” Majdoubi said.
He added: “This is how a real political leader should be.”
Also speaking on Facebook, Moroccan political researcher Yehia Alem described politics in Turkey as “the art of conflict management and the achievement of a decent life [for the people]”.
Erdogan, Alem said, “has been chosen by his people to achieve progress and development in a pluralistic context in which freedoms are guaranteed”.
Mohamed Amhajour, deputy mayor of the Moroccan city of Tangier, also speaking on Facebook, said: “Many people, including myself, followed the Turkish elections with great interest.”
“We are all impressed by the Turkish people’s resolve to complete the development of their country,” he added.
Amhajour also praised the Turkish people’s desire to carve out a place for Turkey among the world’s ten most powerful countries.
Monday morning, Turkey's official electoral commission announced that Erdogan had won an absolute majority of the presidential vote (52.5 percent) after 97.7 percent of all votes had been counted.
In terms of the parliamentary race, Erdogan’s Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Good (IYI) Party all surpassed the 10 percent threshold, allowing them to enter the national assembly, according to electoral commission head Sadi Guven.
