Roundup: Voting on sound track in Turkey's crunch legislative polls

Turks started voting on Sunday in the legislative elections to decide the shape of the next government in Turkey.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party, had campaigned on behalf of the AKP, asking voters to give enough seats to rewrite the constitution so that he will become the executive president.

His involvement in the election campaign stirred major controversy among the opposition parties who accused the president of breaking his oath as impartial and a political head of state.

The AKP has governed the country for the last 13 years and received 49.83 percent of the vote in the 2011 parliamentary elections. Its support is expected to drop in this year's elections although it will still be the leading party, according to various polls ahead of elections.

Smaller pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) may spoil Erdogan's dreams of becoming a stronger president if it exceeds the 10 percent national threshold to enter into Parliament, robing the ruling AKP enough seats to make the amendment on the constitution.

Polling stations opened at 8.00 a.m. local time on Sunday and voting has been going on without any serious violence reported so far. The voting will be closed at 17.00 pm local time.

There are more than 53.7 million eligible voters in Turkey and election turnout is expected to be around some 80 percent, one of the highest in the world.

Preliminary results suggest the turnout was high in predominantly Kurdish Southeast Turkey.

A total of 20 political parties are competing in the elections as well as 165 independent candidates.

The government has beefed up security measures especially after a bombing in Diyarbakir provine of southeastern Turkey during Friday's HDP rally that killed three people and wounded over 100 others.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu who is also the chairman of the AKP said on Sunday that a suspect was arrested in connection with the bombing.

Commenting on the elections after he voted in his home province Konya, he said the election results will decide on the fate of Turkey, and asked everybody to vote with their free will.

At the polling station in Istanbul on Sunday, Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the HDP, said the election campaign was not conducted in equal and fair manner.

"I'm not in a position to say that we have conducted democratic elections and engaged in a democratic race," he said.

A political campaign ban is in effect on Sunday. The media is barred from reporting on election results until 18.00 pm local time and will be allowed to do so only after the Supreme Election Board lift the ban. At 21.00 hours, reporting on election will be free without requiring an approval from the Board.

There were some isolated cases of violence reported across the country.

In the town of Viransehir in southeastern province Sanliurfa, two clans engaged in a fight on election day and the gendarmerie intervened to break the fight.

In Istanbul, an unidentified assailant riding on a bike staged an armed attack on two people and wounded them.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has called for calm and peace, wishing the nation a violence-free, peaceful and democratic elections.

"It [the elections] is very important but remember we are only holding elections, not conducting a war as some suggested," he wrote on his social media account.

The CHP leader was referring to the harsh language adopted by Erdogan and Davutoglu who both dubbed the elections as a "war of independence" against domestic conspirators in alleged cooperation with foreign powers that aim to topple the AKP government.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the third largest political party in Turkey, cast his vote in Cankaya district in Ankara early in the morning, wishing luck to all competing parties and independent candidates.

The outcome of Sunday's vote will have repercussions outside Turkey, a NATO member, the United States ally and a European Union candidate. It also has estranged ties with its neighbors as well as troubled membership talks with the EU.

The ruling AKP has been recently shaken by corruption scandals, slow growth, rising unemployment and inflation, currency devaluation and sharp decline in exports.

The opposition has campaigned on the promise of more jobs, increased growth, better economic and social benefits to laborers and pensioners. Endit