Erdogan won polls with 52.59 pct votes: Election body

By Aylin Sirikli

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won the June 24 presidential election with 52.59 percent votes, Supreme Election Council head said Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference in capital Ankara on Wednesday, Sadi Guven said Erdogan received 26,330,823 votes across Turkey.

The ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party got 42.56 percent votes (295 seats), the Republican People's Party (CHP) 22.65 percent votes (146 seats), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 11.10 percent votes (49 seats), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) 11.70 percent votes (67 seats) and the Good (IYI) Party 9.96 percent votes (43 seats), Guven said.

He said the president's certificate of election would be presented to Parliament Speaker Ismail Kahraman on Wednesday.

Guven said out of the 59,367,469 registered voters, 51,197,959 had cast their ballots for presidential elections, meaning the turnout stood at 86.24 percent.

The turnout for the parliamentary elections was 86.22 percent.

Erdogan's top rival Muharrem Ince lagged behind at 30.64 percent, receiving votes from 15,340,321 people.

HDP's jailed leader Selahattin Demirtas got 8.40 percent votes from 4,205,794 people.

A total of 3,649,030 people (7.29 percent) voted for the Good Party leader, Meral Aksener.

The Felicity Party leader Temel Karamollaoglu received 0.89 percent votes from 443,704 people while Vatan Party Chairman Dogu Perincek received 98,955 of the votes (0.20 percent).

The June 24 vote marked Turkey's transition to an executive presidential system of government, doing away with the prime minister's post, among other changes.