President Erdogan’s rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, adopts anti-immigrant rhetoric in an attempt to change the course of the electoral race in the second round.
Turkish opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Friday accused the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of blocking his text messages to his voters, two days before the decisive round of the presidential elections.
Kilicdaroglu accused the Turkish Information and Communications Technology Authority of carrying out Erdogan’s orders to harm his campaign.
“They blocked (the text messages) because they were afraid of us,” he said in a televised interview conducted at night.
“I ask you, Erdogan, don’t you want me to run in this election,” he tweeted.
Kilicdaroglu’s campaign announced that it had widely sent text messages calling for a follow-up to the television interview with the opposition leader.
The Turkish Information and Communications Technology Authority did not issue any comment.
Kilicdaroglu’s accusation comes in the final stages of a battle for the Turkish presidency that keeps getting fiercer.
In the first round, which was held on May 14, Erdogan won 49.52 percent of the vote, and he appears to be the favorite in the decisive round.
Opinion polls show that Kilicdaroglu was unable to recover his five-point deficit in the first round.
The two rivals are engaged around the clock in the election campaign, which analysts say is the most important Turkey has witnessed in decades.
On Friday, state television conducted an interview with Erdogan that lasted more than an hour.
