Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became the first publicly elected President of Turkey in the history of the Republic, winning 52% of the votes at the presidential elections of August 10. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu, joint candidate of the CHP (secularist, so-called centre-left) and the MHP (nationalist, centre-right), finished second with 38% of the vote. Selahattin Demirtaş of HDP (pro-Kurdish, left) came in third with 9.6% of the votes.