Turkish Election Results Reveal Political Divide in Balkans

Turkey's election authority has confirmed Turkey's strongman for 16 years, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections, with 99.7 per cent of the votes counted.

Democracy was the winner of Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections, Erdogan said on June 25.

"The winners of the June 24 elections are Turkey, Turkish nation, those who suffer in our region and all the oppressed in the world," he told a massed crowd from the balcony of his ruling party's headquarters in Ankara.    

He also thanked other party leaders and members of his alliance.

Semi-official results reported by Anadolu news agency said Erdogan had won 52.6 per cent of votes cast in the presidential race, while his Justice and Development Party, AKP, won 42.5 per cent of votes cast in the general election.

This gives his party an overall majority with the support of its junior partner Nationalist Movement Party', MHP, which won 11.1 per cent in a surprise result. This would give his People's Alliance 343 of 600 seats in parliament.

Diaspora votes, which equalled more than 3 million, were important for Erdogan's victory.

Around 20,000 Turks who reside in the Balkans also voted in Balkan countries in several polling stations.

According to preliminary results, Erdogan won the presidential race in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia with 58.9, 57.4 and 58.4 per cent of votes cast respectively.

Erdogan's main rival, Muharrem Ince, from the main opposition Republican People's Party's, CHP, received 30.6 per cent of total votes and won the majority of votes cast in Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Serbia, with 49.1, 58.3, 55.9, 41.1 and 63.6 per cent respectively.

After the first results were announced, Turks and...