Opinion | Turkey Goes to a Runoff

Turkey’s long-suffering voters showed in Sunday’s presidential election that they want change, as a majority voted against giving President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan another term. But the incumbent may still win as he exploits his authoritarian control over Turkish institutions.

As of Monday afternoon, Mr. Erdoğan led challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the Republican People’s Party, 49.51% to 44.88%. (Sinan Oğan, a nationalist third candidate, received 5.17%.) Both frontrunners fell short of a majority, so the race will go to a May 28 runoff. Mr. Erdoğan has ruled Turkey for 20 years, but preliminary results reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency suggest that in nearly every province Mr. Erdoğan performed worse than he did in the last presidential election.