1st LD: Turkey's ruling AKP leads in polls, may lose parliament majority: TV

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won the parliamentary election yet could lose its majority as it has garnered far less votes than it did four years ago, according to the preliminary poll results, said Turkish NTV news channel on Sunday.

With 80 percent of the votes counted, the AKP has won 42.72 percent of them, while the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) gained 24.79 percent, the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 16.96 percent, and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) 11.17 percent.

It will be the AKP's fourth consecutive win in general elections since it came into power in 2002. In 2011 elections, the party won 49.83 percent of the cast ballots.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also ex-leader of AKP, aimed to win a two-thirds majority in the parliament so that he could switch the countryfrom parliamentary system to a presidential one, yet the non-official election results so far suggest that he may have to scuttle his plans.

Meanwhile, the votes pro-Kurdish HDP got, which have passed the electoral threshold to be represented in the legislature, means that the party can have its members in the parliament.

Before the elections, the opposition parties have tried to thwart AKP's efforts, claiming that the change of political system will damage democracy in the country.

Turkey is ruled by the parliamentary system since the formation of the republic in 1924. The role of the president is largely symbolic until Erdogan's presidential term started almost a year ago. Enditem