The initial official results of the Turkish presidential and parliamentary election, held on Sunday, have emerged, signaling an expected win for the incumbent president and his party. To achieve an outright win and avoid a second round, Erdogan needs to secure more than 50 percent of the vote.

As of 15:50 GMT, Erdogan is leading in the polls with nearly 60 percent of the vote after 20 percent of the ballot boxes were opened. In the parliamentary election, the AK Party leads with 54 percent of the vote, with 8.7 percent of the ballot boxes opened.

The preliminary results correlate with recent opinion polls, which predicted around 52 percent for Erdogan, and 45 percent for his AK Party (AKP). The AKP’s results are expected to be lower than they were in the 2015 election, when the party received nearly 50 percent, achieving a comfortable majority in the parliament.

Today’s election is the first since Turkey switched to a presidential system of governance after the April 2017 constitutional referendum. The referendum effectively split Turkish society in half, as the amendment package passed by a close margin, securing 52 percent of the vote.

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