Broadcasting ban on Turkey elections lifted: Supreme Election Council
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Counted ballots so far show Erdogan at the forefront of the presidential race but with a percentage of votes insufficient to announce him president from the first round.
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A view of blank ballots at a polling station in Ankara, Turkey May 14, 2023 (Reuters)
Turkey's Supreme Election Council lifted on Sunday a broadcasting ban on the results of the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.
Ahmet Yener, the chairman of the Supreme Election Council, told reporters in Ankara that the ban was lifted as of 6.30 pm local time.
According to Yener, the voting process ended without any incidents recorded nationwide.
Over 64.1 million people were registered to vote, with more than 1.76 million voting overseas and 4.9 million first-time voters, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
According to the TRT network, the preliminary turnout in Turkey's presidential and legislative elections on Sunday exceeded 88% at home and 45% overseas.
A total of 191,885 ballot boxes have been installed around the country, it added.
Every Turkish voter cast two ballots, one for the president and the other for parliamentarians, for a five-year term.
The counting of ballots has begun in a battle between Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish opposition's main candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and Sinan Ogan.
Over 30 Turkish political parties and over 150 independent parliamentary candidates competed in the race.
The People's Alliance, Nation Alliance, Ancestral Alliance, Labor and Freedom Alliance, and Union of Socialist Forces Alliance were the five multiparty blocs in the running.
The results of the counted ballots so far show Erdogan at the forefront of the presidential race, mainly against Kilicdaroglu, but with a percentage of votes insufficient to announce him president from the first round.
#Erdogan seems to be in the lead in the presidential race so far now that 94.24% of the votes have been counted.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 14, 2023
The final results will be published later this evening once all the ballots are counted.#TurkeyElection2023 #TurkishElections pic.twitter.com/risnXMjYs5
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