Turkey's elections for presidency, parliament underway

Voters in Turkiye are heading to the polls on Sunday for landmark parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces in his two decades in powerThe vote will either grant the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan a new fiveyear term in office or set the NATOmember country on what his opposition contender calls a more democratic pathPolling began at 8 am 0500 GMT and will close at 5 pm 1400 GMT Media organisations are barred from reporting partial results until an embargo is lifted at 9 pm 1800 GMT There are no exit pollsFor the first time in his 20 years in office opinion polls indicate that the populist Erdogan 69 is entering a race trailing behind an opponent Opinion surveys have given a slight lead to Kemal Kilicdaroglu the 74yearold leader of the centreleft prosecular Republican Peoples Party or CHP and the joint candidate of a united opposition allianceIf neither candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the votes the presidential race will be determined in a runoff on May 28 More than 64 million people including 34 million overseas voters are eligible to vote in the elections which are taking place the year Turkiye marks the centenary of the establishment of the republic Voter turnout in Turkiye is traditionally strong showing continued belief in this type of civic participation in a country where freedom of expression and assembly have been suppressedThe elections come as the country is wracked by economic turmoil that critics blame on the governments mishandling of the economy and a steep costofliving crisis Turkiye is also reeling from the effects of a powerful earthquake that caused devastation in 11 southern provinces in February killing more than 50000 people in unsafe buildingsErdogans government has been criticized for its delayed and stunted response to the disaster as well as the lax implementation of building codes that exacerbated the misery Internationally the elections are being watched closely as a test of a united oppositions ability to dislodge a leader who has concentrated nearly all powers of the state in his handsErdogan has led a divisive election campaign using state resources and his domineering position over media as in previous years He has accused the opposition of colluding with terrorists of being drunkards and of upholding LGBTQ rights which he says are a threat to traditional family values In a bid to woo voters hit hard by inflation he has increased wages and pensions and subsidized electricity and gas bills while showcasing Turkiyes homegrown defence industry and infrastructure projectsHe has extended the political alliance of his ruling Justice and Development Party or AKP with two nationalist parties to include a small leftist party and two marginal Islamist parties Kilicdaroglus sixparty Nation Alliance has promised to dismantle an executive presidential system narrowly voted in by a 2017 referendum that Erdogan installed and return the country to a parliamentary democracyAlso readTurkiyes opposition denounces fairness of vote under ErdoganThey have promised to establish the independence of the judiciary and the central bank institute checks and balances and reverse the democratic backsliding and crackdowns on free speech and dissent under ErdoganThe alliance includes the nationalist Good Party led by former interior minister Meral Aksener and two parties that splintered from the AKP and are led by former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu and former finance minister Ali Babacan as well as a small Islamist partyThe countrys main Kurdish political party currently Turkiyes second largest opposition grouping that the government has targeted with arrests and lawsuits is supporting Kilicdaroglu in the presidential raceAlso running for president is Sinan Ogan a former academic who has the backing of an antiimmigrant nationalist party One other candidate the centreleft politician Muharrem Ince dropped out of the race on Thursday following a significant drop in his ratings but his withdrawal was considered invalid by the countrys electoral board and votes for him will be countedVoters will also be casting ballots to fill seats in the 600member parliament The opposition would need at least a majority to be able to enact some of the democratic reforms it has promised Balloting in the 11 provinces affected by the earthquake has given rise to concern about the registration of nearly 9 million votersAround 3 million people have left the quake zone for other provinces but only 133000 people have registered to vote at their new locations Political parties and nongovernmental organisations planned to transport voters by bus but it was not clear how many would make the journey backMany of the quake survivors will cast votes in containers turned into makeshift polling stations erected on school yardsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies 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