Istanbul (EFE) ).
Some 61 million Turks can vote in more than 192,000 ballot boxes to choose the 600 members of Parliament and who will be the new president for the next five years among three candidates: Erdogan, the social democrat Kemal Kiliçdaroglu and the nationalist Sinan Ogan.
The latest polls predict a narrow victory for Kiliçdaroglu over Erdogan, although it is possible that neither of them will achieve an absolute majority in this first round that would avoid a second round in two weeks.
Ogan will get no more than 3%, enough to subtract from the two candidates with options the votes needed to achieve that majority.
In the parliamentary elections, the polls see it as unlikely that the coalition of Erdogan’s party, the Islamist AKP, with the ultranationalist MHP will renew its absolute majority, although the alliance of the social democrat CHP with the nationalist IYI would not reach it either, so the leftist party HDP it would be decisive.
News related to the elections cannot be disseminated until 18:00 local time (15:00 GMT), and the press is prohibited from reporting the results until 21:00 local time (18:00 GMT), although the Electoral Commission can lift this veto earlier.