(Istanbul) Struggling with an intestinal virus, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put his electoral campaign on hold for the third consecutive day on Friday, 16 days before presidential and legislative elections which promise to be disputed.
The head of state, 69, including 20 in power, was forced to speak by videoconference at the end of the afternoon from the presidential palace in Ankara for the inauguration of a bridge in Adana (South) .
Mr. Erdogan has canceled all his trips since Tuesday evening, including one for the highly anticipated inauguration Thursday of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, during which he was only able to deliver a simple intervention by videoconference, the Tired.
” He is fine. The effects of his gastroenteritis have diminished. He wants to resume his program as soon as possible,” Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Thursday afternoon.
The Turkish presidency has not given more information since, nor specified whether the head of state could hold his large rally scheduled for Sunday in Ankara, two weeks to the day of the double ballot.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been forced on Tuesday evening to interrupt a live television interview, in the middle of a question from a journalist.
The head of state, pale in complexion, reappeared on the air a quarter of an hour later before cutting the interview short, explaining that he had caught a “stomach flu”.
The episode falls badly for the Turkish president, who intended to line up two to three daily rallies in the home stretch before May 14.
His main opponent, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, chained two rallies on Friday, in Giresun (North-West) and Kocaeli (North-West).
At the head of an alliance of six opposition parties, Mr. Kiliçdaroglu is given a good position against President Erdogan by most polls.
On Friday, the pro-Kurdish left-wing party HDP, Turkey’s third political force, called on its supporters to vote in favor of Mr. Kiliçdaroglu, a support likely to promote his election.
