Turkey\u2019s Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead in the presidential election with 52% of votes counted, state media report.<\/p>\n
Mr Erdogan has 56%, and his closest rival, Muharrem Ince, is on 29%.<\/p>\n
If Mr Erdogan wins more than 50% of the overall vote, he will be declared the winner and avoid the need for a second round of voting.<\/p>\n
As well as the presidency, voters are also choosing members of parliament. Mr Erdogan\u2019s party is ahead in that poll.<\/p>\n
With 38% of the votes for parliament counted, the president\u2019s AK Party leads with 47% of the votes, the state news agency Anadolu reports. The main opposition CHP is on 19%.<\/p>\n
Voter turnout is almost 87%, the state broadcaster says.<\/p>\n
Initial results were thought likely to favour the AK Party, so Mr Erdogan\u2019s lead is expected to decrease as more votes are counted.<\/p>\n
His opponent tweeted that the state news agency was being manipulative by releasing results from pro-Erdogan areas first.<\/p>\n
Turkey remains under a state of emergency imposed in the aftermath of a failed coup in July 2016.<\/p>\n
These elections were originally scheduled for November 2019 but were brought forward by Mr Erdogan.<\/p>\n
He is seeking a second term as president, and would govern under a new constitution which grants the president new powers.<\/p>\n
Mr Erdogan was prime minister for 11 years before becoming president in 2014.<\/p>\n
Media\u00a0<\/strong>captionDoes\u00a0it matter who\u2019s in charge of Turkey?<\/strong> But his opponent accused the former physics teacher of not having the skills to lead.<\/p>\n Muharrem Ince is known for his fiery campaigning As well as Mr Erdogan and Mr Ince, there are four candidates on the ballot.<\/p>\n One has to hit the 50% threshold in an outright win, or the top two will face off in a second-round vote on 8 July.<\/p>\n \u2013<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turkey\u2019s Recep Tayyip Erdogan is ahead in the presidential election with 52% of votes counted, state media report. Mr Erdogan has 56%, and his closest rival, Muharrem Ince, is on 29%. If Mr Erdogan wins more than 50% of the overall vote, he will be declared the winner and avoid the need for a second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","post_format-post-format-image"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nMr Ince has promised to push back what he characterised as a slide into authoritarian rule under Mr Erdogan, should he win.<\/p>\n
\nAround 60 million Turks were eligible to take part in Sunday\u2019s dual polls.<\/p>\n