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                     Erdogan Wins Turkey Presidential Poll

   by VOA News

   Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has won his country's
   first-ever direct presidential election, ensuring he will remain
   Turkey's leader for another five years.

   Turkey's election commission Sunday said that with nearly all the votes
   counted, provisional results show Erdogan won an absolute majority of
   the vote.

   The results show him easily outdistancing two opponents, Ekmeleddin
   Ihsanoglu, former chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, who
   collected about 39 percent of the vote, and Kurdish candidate
   Selahattin Demirtas with nine percent.

   Turkish television reports said the 60-year-old Erdogan, a devout
   Muslim, headed to a mosque to pray before an expected flight to the
   capital, Ankara, for a victory speech.

   Erdogan is in his third term as prime minister and his election will
   extend his decade-long domination of Turkish political affairs.

   He is viewed by supporters as responsible for Turkey's economic advance
   while turning the country toward religious conservatism and away from
   its secular traditions.  The prime minister said during the campaign he
   would exercise the full powers of the presidency under Turkey's
   existing laws, including the authority to call parliament, summon
   Cabinet meetings and appoint prime ministers, the council of ministers
   and some high court judges.

   In the past, Turkey's presidents have been ceremonial figureheads, but
   Erdogan says he intends to change the constitution and establish an
   executive presidency. After casting his vote Sunday, he cited the
   importance of the election.

   "This is very important for Turkey in terms of our political history,
   because it's a first. As we've repeatedly said before, for the first
   time our people will choose their president without an intermediary. In
   this regard it's very, very important," said Erdogan.

   Religious conservatives, who are Erdogan's core supporters, see his
   rise to the presidency as the crowning achievement of his drive to
   reshape Turkey.  As prime minister, he has broken the hold of the
   secular elite that dominated government since the founding of the
   modern Turkish republic in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

   The prime minister's critics are disturbed by his Islamist political
   roots and his increasingly authoritarian bent.  In the past year,
   Erdogan has purged thousands of police and prosecutors, increased the
   powers of the country's intelligence agency and banned access to
   YouTube and Twitter as he fought off corruption probes that implicated
   the government and family members.

   Erdogan's campaign slogan was "national will, national power."
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/turkeys-erdogan-leads-in-unofficial-v
   ote-count/2409014.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/turkeys-erdogan-leads-in-unofficial-vote-count/2409014.html