Turkey opens polling stations today for an "unprecedented" presidential run-off between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opponent Kemal Kiliçdaroglu.

Erdogan, a conservative Islamist who has been in power since 2017, won 49.5% of the votes in the first round against 44.9% for Kiliçdaroglu, a center-left secularist who contested the official results.

According to Lusa, after the alliance around Erdogan and led by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) secured a new absolute majority in parliament in the first round of elections on May 14, the strategy of the two rivals focused on trying to secure the 5.2% of votes that in the first round went to Sinan Ogan, the third presidential candidate and with a strong anti-immigration discourse.

For his part, Kiliçdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) since 2010 and who stood in the polls as the presidential candidate of a coalition of six Turkish opposition parties, has in the last two weeks taken a turn to the right in an attempt to capture the ultra-nationalist vote, much to the displeasure of the more left-wing forces that support him.

In the meantime, although there are no projections, it should be difficult for Kiliçdaroglu to capture the 2.6 million votes he needs to win the presidency.