ANKARA
Millions of Turkish electorates have flocked to the polls on Sunday and so far it has proceeded peacefully.
The voting started 7am sharp at most of the eastern polling stations across the 32 provinces and will finish at 4pm, while in 49 of the western provinces voting began at 8am and will finish at 5pm.
An Anadolu Agency correspondent reporting from the southeastern province of Diyarbakir said voters started turning up early to vote and that there have been no problems so far as voting continues.
"I have been casting my vote for 50 years, it is my civic duty and I am happy to do it" said Musa Kochan, a villager in the southeastern province of Mardin. While an Assyrian living in Mardin, Danyal Akdemir, said they were “casting votes in a very nice atmosphere."
In the eastern province of Siirt, 130-year-old Mehmet Esen said "I am voting for peace and the brotherhood of the Turkish and Kurdish people," as he went in to vote.
Elsewhere Cankiri Governor Vahdettin Ozcan who went to the polls with his partner in the central Anatolian Cankiri province said "the election [in the province] goes on with no problems and no incidents have occurred anywhere across the provinces so far."
In Kocaeli, a province near Istanbul, witnesses said the vote was proceeding in a peaceful manner and Ercan Topaca, the governor, said no security incidents had occurred that could negatively affect the results of elections so far, adding that over 2,000 security officers were endeavoring to keep the peace during Sunday's election.
Turkish security officials have taken the necessary precautions to make sure that the March 30 polls are undisrupted in accordance with the provincial governors' instructions.
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