Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are leading in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, early results showed.
Polling stations closed at 14:00 GMT and preliminary results were ready after 18:00 GMT.
AKP won 54 percent of the vote with 40 percent of ballots counted, enough to give it a legislative majority in parliament, preliminary results showed.
Votes were counted first in the east, where the party had a strong showing in the previous election, when it won 47 percent nationwide.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party had 22 percent of the vote and the Nationalist Action Party 13 percent, more than the 10 percent of the vote required to enter parliament.
About 15 parties and 200 independent candidates were contesting 550 seats for four-year terms in parliament, and about 50 million Turks, or two-thirds of the population, were eligible to vote.
ANKARA, June 12 (RIA Novosti)