Turks goes to the polls today to elect their president

Voters in Turkey are heading to the polls on Sunday for landmark parliamentary and presidential elections that are expected to be tightly contested and could be the biggest challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces in his two decades in power. 

Polling began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). Media organizations are barred from reporting partial results until an embargo is lifted at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). There are no exit polls.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69 of the AKP is up against main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, 74 of the the center-left, pro-secular Republican People's Party, CHP, and the joint candidate of a united opposition alliance

More than 64 million people, including 3.4 million overseas voters, are eligible to vote in the elections.

Erdogan has cast his ballot at a primary school in Istanbul's Üsküdar district. After voting, he expressed hope that the outcome would be "good for the future of the country," although he did not predict a win.

"My hope to God is that after the counting concludes this evening, the outcome is good for the future of our country, for Turkish democracy," he said. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power more than 20 years ago, and he hopes to extend his tenure as modern Turkey's longest-serving ruler.

He won in the first round of the presidential election in 2018 with 52.6% of the vote. 

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has cast his vote in Turkey’s capital city, Ankara.

Erdogan’s political career can be traced back to the 1970s in Beyoglu, the Istanbul district that includes his childhood home in Kasimpasa, a working-class neighbourhood.

His first political role came in 1976 as the head of the Beyoglu youth branch of the National Salvation Party, led by Necmettin Erbakan, a future prime minister widely viewed as Erdogan’s mentor.

Four years later, he attracted the attention of the courts for reciting a controversial poem. This led to a four-month jail term for “inciting hatred”.

Emerging from prison in July 1999, Erdogan went on to form the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) two years later.

The party won the 2002 elections. Due to his political ban, Erdogan was unable to take office as prime minister until the following March.

So began two decades of power that many say have seen a dramatic change in Erdogan’s politics.