Early reports suggest Erdogan win in elections
Turkey’s opposition was on course to win the minimum 10 per cent of the vote needed to take seats in parliament, which could deny Recep Tayyip Erdogan a majority.
Early election results suggested Mr Erdogan may have secured more than half of the vote to retain the presidency, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, although the results were far from final.
It placed the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) above the 10 per cent threshold.
But results from a non-government group suggested the presidential vote could proceed to a run-off.
Anadolu said Mr Erdogan had secured 56.4 per cent of the presidential vote with more than half the votes counted, and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) took 47.1 per cent, giving it more than 350 seats in the 600-seat parliament.
The second-placed candidate, Muharrem Ince of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was on 27.45 per cent and his party stood to take 15.6 per cent.
But the predictions were provisional and possibly unreliable in elections that with widespread allegations of electoral fraud.
The non-government Fair Elections group, which collated data through a mobile app, said Mr Erdogan had secured only 43.5 per cent of the vote.
The elections were the first since Turkey moved to an executive presidency, granting wide new powers to the head of government.
They were not originally due until next year but Mr Erdogan called them early to try to shore up his power.
With the count continuing, most claims of ballot-stuffing and attacks on election observers were centred on the Kurdish-majority south-east. Opposition candidates warn-ed supporters across the country to protect ballot boxes after the polls closed at 5pm local time, but many voters were denied the legal right to watch the count at local stations.
As crowds gathered in front of the Supreme Electoral Council in Ankara, police warned them to leave or be forcefully dispersed.
Mr Ince advised against trusting the results as announced by Anadolu amid concerns that early results would inflate the number of votes for Mr Erdogan and the AKP.
The vote, which was conducted under a state of emergency imposed after a 2016 coup attempt, will decide whether Mr Erdogan will remain in office to enjoy broad new powers and whether his electoral alliance will keep its majority in the Grand National Assembly.
Opinion polls showed a tight race between the AKP, which is partnered with the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), and an opposition coalition that includes the secularist CHP and the nationalist Iyi Party.
Early results showed Meral Aksener of the Iyi Party on 7.56 per cent and her party garnering 8.54 of the vote. The MHP, which supports Mr Erdogan’s candidacy, was on 13.1 per cent.
Selahattin Demirtas, the candidate for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), had 5.75 per cent in the early results and the party 7.44 per cent.
Pre-election surveys had indicated that Mr Erdogan might not pass the 50 per cent needed to avoid a second-round run-off in the presidential race. Mr Ince would be the candidate most likely to face him on July 8.
The closeness of the race and new laws that critics say could pave the way for electoral fraud have heightened concerns, particularly in the south-east where the HDP is strongest.
If the HDP missed the 10 per cent threshold, its votes would be redistributed to the second-placed party, the AKP.
Suruc, a Kurdish-majority city near the Syrian border, was where most claims of electoral interference came from.
Armed supporters of AKP deputy Ibrahim Yildiz reportedly attacked election observers and forced voters to back the ruling party.
Police also found four sacks of ballots already stamped when they stopped a car in the city, the Evrensel newspaper reported. The papers were thought to have been prepared to swap with legitimately cast votes.
There were also reports of violence against observers, about 500,000 of whom were sent in by the opposition and independent groups, and ballot-stuffing across the south-east.
Other claims of malpractice around the country included officials reportedly entering booths with voters, people casting relatives’ ballots and monitors being blocked from polling stations.
Videos online appeared to show people stamping more than one ballot in several locations. Three Iyi Party workers, including a district chairman, were killed in a shooting in Karacoban in the eastern province of Erzurum.
In areas where thousands of ballot boxes have been moved for security reasons, voters were forced to travel to neighbouring villages. The HDP said residents of Ceylani in Hakkari, Turkey’s most south-eastern province, had to walk 25km to vote.
Responding to the Suruc claims, electoral council head Sadi Guven said voting had proceeded normally.
As they cast their votes, several presidential candidates alluded to the threat of fraud and pledged to remain vigilant.
As Mr Ince cast his vote in his hometown of Yalova, he said he would head to the electoral council offices in Ankara to “guard” the count, vowing not to sleep until the final tally was in.
Mr Ince later tweeted: “Whatever they do, they will lose. The era of winning elections by foul play has now ended.”
Mr Erdogan described the irregularities as not serious.
In the capital, polls opened at 8am in local schools.
At Ahmet Vefik Pasa primary and middle school in Ankara’s Ayranci neighbourhood, election officials checked IDs as six police officers milled around the school gates.
Opposition observers had been in place since 5am, responding to a call by Mr Ince, a 54-yearold former physics teacher, for them to arrive at their posts an hour earlier than planned.
“We need to guard against any attempt to interfere with the ballot boxes so we came early to make sure we could take our places,” one volunteer said.
Across the country long queues formed outside polling stations, with many elderly or sick voters being helped by others.
In a further development, Anadolu reported that legal proceedings had been launched against 10 French, German and Italian nationals who had been posing as election observers in the south-east.
A turnout of 87 per cent was recorded for the 56.3 million who voted in Turkey and nearly 1.5 million overseas voters.