ANKARA ¨C Turkey¡¯s third-place election candidate endorsed President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, boosting the incumbent and intensifying the challenges for opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a Sunday runoff vote.
Sinan Ogan, a hard-line nationalist who was little known among the broader public before the campaign, won 5.2% support in the initial presidential election on May 14, prompting some analysts to call him a potential ¡°kingmaker¡± for the runoff.
¡°I declare that we will support the People¡¯s Alliance candidate Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the second round,¡± Ogan said during a news conference in Ankara, adding his campaign had made Turkish nationalists ¡°key players¡± in politics.
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