UPDATE //Turkey elections // 51 percent of votes counted, Erdogan leads with 52 percent of the vote, Kilicdaroglu - 42.1 percent
The first results of the vote count in Turkey's presidential election race show a considerable lead for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led the country for 20 years, while his challenger is credited with far fewer votes, although it was expected to be an extremely close race, News.ro reports.
UPDATE - With 73 percent of the vote counted, Erdogan continues to lead with 50.91 percent of the vote, followed by challenger Kilicdaroglu with 43.28 percent.
UPDATE - After counting 51 percent of the vote, Erdogan has 52 percent of the vote and Kilicdaroglu - 42.1 percent.
UPDATE - Forty percent of the votes have been counted and Erdogan leads with 52.7 percent of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu has 41.4 percent.
In Istanbul, where 35 percent of the votes have been counted, the two are almost tied, with a slight lead for Erdogan: 47.8 percent to Kilicdaroglu's 47.3 percent.
UPDATE - After counting more than 30 percent of the votes Kemal Kilicdaroglu has reached 40 percent, while Erdogan has dropped to below 55 percent, as early results indicated a gap of more than 23 percent between them.
Thus, Erdogan has 53.6 percent of the vote, Kilicdaroglu - 40.4 percent, and Sinan Ogan - 5.4 percent.
UPDATE - More than 21 percent of the vote has been counted, and Erdogan's lead is holding steady, although it has narrowed by a few percent.
Thus, the incumbent president has 55 percent of the vote, while the opposition leader has 39 percent of the vote.
The gap is expected to narrow as the votes are counted.
BREAKING NEWS Thus, after counting 10.8 percent of the vote, Erdogan leads with 58.4 percent of the vote, while Kemal Kilicdaroglu has 35.8 percent of the vote and the third candidate, Ogan, has 5.2 percent of the vote.
Polling stations closed at 17.00 local (and Romanian) time, and the first precasts of the results were expected at 21.00, but given the extreme suspense, the authorities accepted that the first vote counts would be announced earlier.
Recep Erdogan, 69, who voted in Istanbul, returned to Ankara on Sunday, although he had said he would watch the result from Istanbul, according to Reuters. "We pray to God for a better future for our country, for the nation and for Turkish democracy," he said at the time of the vote.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74, voted in Ankara and left the polling station to the applause of the waiting crowd. "I offer my sincerest love and respect to all my citizens who go to the polls and vote. We all miss democracy so much," he told reporters.
The vote was monitored by a mission from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which said it would issue a preliminary statement on its findings on Monday.
