By Global News Service

From the Peoples Dispatch / Globetrotter News Service

Headlines

• Erdoğan Upsets Opposition Hopes of Victory, Run-off With Kılıçdaroğlu Expected in Turkey’s Presidential Race

• India’s Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Suffers Blow in Karnataka State Elections

• Fighting Between Sudanese Army and RSF Has Disastrous Impact in Darfur as Hundreds of Thousands Are Displaced

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro Warns of Coup Plot Against Him

Erdoğan Upsets Opposition Hopes of Victory, Run-off With Kılıçdaroğlu Expected in Turkey’s Presidential Race

In the Turkish parliamentary elections held on May 14, the ruling People’s Alliance, led by the Justice and Development Party, retained its majority. However, there was no clear winner in the presidential elections and a run-off is likely to be held between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. 

Erdoğan emerged as the front runner with more than 49 percent of the vote. His agenda is the continuation of his economic and foreign policies. Kılıçdaroğlu, the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance led by the Republican People’s Party, who was leading in the pre-election surveys, failed to win even 45 percent of the votes. He is campaigning on the promise of “change,” including a return to the parliamentary system and radical changes in foreign policy based on a pro-Western approach.

As per Turkey’s Supreme Election Council, 87 percent of the electorate, 56 million citizens, voted in the elections. The results have defied public opinion surveys published prior to the vote, which stated that Kılıçdaroğlu was ahead of Erdoğan.

The results have also dashed the opposition’s hope of benefiting from popular grievances against Erdoğan’s government, which include prolonged high inflation deepening the cost of living crisis, backlash against Syrian refugees, and the mismanagement of the February earthquake relief.

A run-off will most likely be held two weeks from now for the presidential post, as neither of the lead candidates were able to secure over 50 percent of the vote.

India’s Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Suffers Blow in Karnataka State Elections

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost a key election in the state of Karnataka on May 10. The opposition Indian National Congress (INC) won a decisive victory in the southern state, securing 135 seats in the 234-member legislative assembly. The BJP won 65 seats, while the Janata Dal (Secular) [JD(S)] won 19 seats.

The BJP had been in power in Karnataka, having formed the government in July 2019 under controversial circumstances. The BJP toppled a coalition of the INC and JD(S) by having legislators of the two parties defect.

The BJP conducted a high-octane campaign in the state in 2023, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his second-in-command Home Minister Amit Shah. The party resorted to its usual strategies of religious polarization. However, in the run-up to the campaign, analysts pointed out that there was deep dissatisfaction with the BJP government in Karnataka.

Newsclick analyst Subodh Varma noted that a pre-poll survey had found that “68 percent of those surveyed identified corruption, 47 percent said price rise and 34 percent said unemployment were important factors in deciding which way to vote… The survey found that among poorer sections, price rise becomes an even bigger issue with about 51 percent of respondents reporting it as a major factor.” He added that these issues, along with unemployment and the crisis faced by farmers, were “[overriding the] caste and regional divisions” in the state. 

Fighting Between Sudanese Army and RSF Has Disastrous Impact in Darfur as Hundreds of Thousands Are Displaced

Over 700,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan since April 15, when an armed conflict began between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The IOM spokesperson, Paul Dillon, said at a press briefing in Geneva on May 9 that the number has doubled in the prior week after IOM had previously estimated on May 3 that 334,053 had been displaced, 72 percent of them in West Darfur and South Darfur States.

In the states of South Darfur, North Darfur, and Central Darfur, clashes between the SAF and RAF began soon after they started fighting in Khartoum, killing many civilians, as Mohammed Alamaldin, a civil society activist from West Darfur’s capital Genena, told Peoples Dispatch.

However, in his own state, community members—including youth, women, and elders—had managed to secure a local agreement between SAF and RSF “to wait until the winner is determined in Khartoum.”

The locally negotiated truce lasted for a little over a week before forces clashed on April 24. Amid the ensuing insecurity, the armed conflict between West Darfur’s ethnic militias escalated, killing over 250 and wounding 300 civilians between April 27 and May 3, according to Alamaldin. On May 12 and May 13 alone, 280 were killed and over 160 were injured.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro Warns of Coup Plot Against Him

Colombia’s first leftist president Gustavo Petro sounded the alarms about a brewing coup plot against him. He told participants during an event in Sucre at which land was turned over to dispossessed peasants, “For the first time there is a president that, instead of trying to take the land away from peasants to keep it or give it to his friends, he is trying to give the land back. And now some former colonel says that this deserves a coup d’état… these coups are resisted and overcome through the mobilization of citizens.”

Petro was referring to statements made on May 11 by retired Army Colonel John Marulanda during a debate on La W radio. Marulanda said that the mobilization of retired members of the military is a sign that Colombia is “following the steps of Peru” wherein “the reserve forces were successfully able to defenestrate a corrupt president.” He added, “Here we will do our best to defenestrate someone who was a guerrilla fighter.”

On Wednesday, May 10, around 3,000 retired members of the Armed Forces mobilized in the Plaza Bolívar against Petro’s government. The retired members particularly take issue with Petro’s plan for “Total Peace,” in which the government has engaged in peace talks and negotiations with numerous armed groups and established several bilateral ceasefires. Retired army personnel also criticized progressive reforms promoted by Petro and members of the Historic Pact, such as the health care reform and labor reform. Many in the mobilization demanded “Out Petro!” and particularly opposed him for being a former member of a guerrilla group. In this context, Marulanda’s words have sparked concerns of a coup plot against Petro.