Turkish voters woke up this morning following an historic nail-biting election that, as of Monday, seems to be going to a runoff. 

Neither the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan nor opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu crossed the 50 percent threshold needed to win the presidency. 

Erdogan received 49.4 percent of the votes, just short of an outright victory with 99 percent of the votes counted. His main competitor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), only managed 44.96 percent.  

The headline from the AKP-leaning Sabah newspaper was jubilant: “From the national will, trust in Erdogan!”

“The West’s dirty games or the PKK/HDP international threats of war did nothing,” the daily exclaimed, regarding accusations made by the ruling government that the West was seeking to tilt the election towards the opposition. 

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Turkish press review: Jubilation at Erdogan victory, as opposition licks its wounds