ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – As ballots are counted from the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, preliminary results show that the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) will be included in the new Parliament.
Early results from Turkey’s much-anticipated snap elections show the HDP having won over 11 percent (11.4), comfortably surpassing the 10 percent threshold required for a party to enter Parliament.
The results were revealed by state media Anadolu Agency, the only source available posting the outcomes from the polls.
The numbers are based on 97 percent of ballots having been counted as the HDP looks set to win 66 seats in the new 600-seat Parliament.
Based on state media numbers, initial results from the Kurdish-majority provinces in the country’s southeast show the HDP and its jailed presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas ahead of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan, however, leads the presidential election race with over 52.55 percent votes while his AKP leads the parliamentary polls with 42.4 percent.
Demirtas, who has been forced to campaign behind prison bars since his arrest over 20 months ago, received 8.2 percent of votes in the presidential elections race behind leading opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Muharrem Ince (30.77) and Erdogan.
Over 56 million people were registered to vote at 180,000 ballot boxes across the country. Voting began at 8:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) and polls closed at 5:00 p.m. (14:00 GMT).
It is the first time the presidential and parliamentary elections are held simultaneously, with both the presidential and parliamentary ballots placed in a single envelope.
All numbers based on time of publishing of report and subject to change.