First-ever direct presidentials in Turkey
August 10, 2014
Some 53 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday's election to choose a successor to President Abdullah Gul, who is not running for a second term. Initial reports indicated that voter turnout might be slightly lower than in previous elections.
The electoral contest pitted outgoing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 60, from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), against two other opponents, both of whom lagged behind Erdogan in pre-election surveys.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, 70, the former head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, who is running as a joint candidate for the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), is Erdogan's strongest rival.
The other candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, at 41 the youngest of the candidates and the first Kurd to bid for the top job, is a human rights lawyer from the leftist Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Polls put him in third place.
More powerful presidency?
After casting his ballot in Istanbul, the country's largest city, Erdogan (pictured above) told reporters: "The people are making an important decision... for Turkish democracy, for the future of our country."
Erdogan, who is barred by party rules from serving a fourth term as prime minister, vowed in the run-up to the election to transform the presidency - previously a largely ceremonial role - into a powerful position if he wins.
Critics fear that an Erdogan victory could lead to more authoritarianism and less freedom of expression. They also warn that Erdogan, who has his roots in political Islam, could take the country further away from the long-cherished secular ideals espoused by the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Erdogan has been prime minister for more than a decade, during a period that has seen Turkey emerge as a regional economic power. He has, however, faced much criticism for what opponents see as an intolerance of dissent.
A presidential term in Turkey is five years long. If none of the three candidates in Sunday's election receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off is scheduled for August 24.
Preliminary results were expected in the evening.
tj/nm (dpa, AP, Reuters)