Voters in Turkey choose between Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu in presidential runoff

Voters in Turkey returned to the polls Sunday to decide whether the country’s longtime leader stretches his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade, or is unseated by a challenger who has promised to restore a more democratic society.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been at Turkey’s helm for 20 years, is favored to win a new five-year term in the second-round runoff, after coming just short of an outright victory in the first round on May 14.

The divisive populist finished four percentage points ahead of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party alliance and leader of Turkey’s center-left main opposition party. Erdogan’s performance came despite crippling inflation and the effects of a devastating earthquake three months ago.

The two candidates offered sharply different visions of the country’s future, and its recent past.

“This election took place under very difficult circumstances, there was all sorts of slander and