Parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey
Turks go to the polls on Sunday in the most important election in their modern history to decide whether Recep Tayyip Erdoğan remains president after 20 years in power, BBC reports.
His main rival, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, vows to give up many of the powers President Erdoğan acquired after surviving a failed coup in 2016. Backed by a broad opposition alliance, Kılıçdaroğlu has a real chance of winning.
Turkey's 64 million voters go to the polls in particularly difficult times. Inflation has soared to nearly 44%, but many Turks believe the percentage is much higher, and 11 of the country's provinces have been hit by two earthquakes that have killed more than 50,000 people.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has been at Turkey's helm for more than two decades, initially as prime minister and since 2014 as president, is backed by the four-party People's Alliance, the largest of which he founded, the Justice and Development Party.
Also on this day, Turkish citizens elect the next legislature. All 600 seats in the Grand National Assembly are at stake in the parliamentary elections. Polls indicate that no group will have an absolute majority of 301 MPs. The first results are expected around midnight, when the election bans end, and after 00:00 the first partial data may be released. Political leaders are expected to give their verdict on Monday morning after the majority of votes are counted.
