Türkiye closes presidential election runoff polls, votes being counted

Turkey closed the polls for the country's first presidential election runoff on Sunday, after millions of Turks cast their ballots in a race between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The polls, which opened at 8 am (0500 GMT) on Sunday, were closed at 5 pm local time. Votes are being counted and unofficial results are expected to be released after 7 pm local time.

The voting process went off without problems, chairman of the Supreme Election Council (YSK) Ahmet Yener told reporters.

Neither candidate secured more than 50 percent of the votes needed to call a winner in the first round on May 14 and an election runoff was held for the first time for the presidency.

Erdogan, 69, has emerged with a lead in the first round, garnering 49.52 percent of the votes, just shy of a half percentage point to win outright.

Kilicdaroglu, 74, who represents a coalition of six political parties of disparate political views, obtained 44.88 percent.

Meanwhile, the third-place candidate, nationalist politician Sinan Ogan, gained 5.17 percent in the first round.

The country of 85 million people has more than 64 million eligible voters to elect a president for a five-year term. More than 1.8 million Turks abroad cast their votes at diplomatic missions and customs gates for the runoff.

The presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 saw a high voter turnout at 86.98 percent as almost 54 million citizens went to the polls.