2nd LD: Turkey's ruling AKP may secure parliament majority
Xinhua, November 2, 2015 Adjust font size:
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) may secure parliament majority, according to initial results based on 87 percent of votes counted in Sunday's elections.
Polls are closed in Turkey on Sunday as Turkish nationals run to ballot boxes for a crucial parliamentary election which will determine if the ruling AKP will be able to form a single government after 13 years of majority at the parliament.
After 87 percent of the votes have been counted, the AKP received 50.5 percent, according to the private NTV news channel's initial results.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) won 24.4 percent, while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) shows a sharp decrease of votes with some 11.9 percent. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has 9.9 percent of votes, according to initial results.
The voting ended at 1400 GMT and initial results are expected by 1800 GMT. Some 54 million Turks have casted votes, according to Anadolu Agency.
The early elections are the second in five months, after the AKP lost the single-party governing majority in June 7 elections and failed to form a coalition government.
"This election was necessitated as a result of the instable outcome of the June 7 elections. It has become apparent how important stability is to our nation," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after casting his vote in Istanbul on Sunday.
Some 385,000 security officers were deployed during the elections, as the government kept the security high in the Kurdish majority southeast provinces.
Sunday's polling was carried out following renewed clashes between outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish state, as well as a wave of jihadist attacks which have left several hundred people dead since July.
No incidents of violence had been reported by mid-afternoon Sunday. The AKP district head, Halit Toktas, was detained at a polling station in eastern Van province after quarreling with election observers from the HDP.
Police used tear gas to disperse a quarrel between supporters of the AKP and the HDP at a polling station in western Kocaeli province.
An election observer from the HDP was detained in the southeastern Gaziantep province for "interrupting election security." Endit