Polling underway for Turkey elections
Ankara, June 24 : Polling was underway on Sunday in Turkey's parliamentary and presidential elections where incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seeking re-election for a new five-year term which he says will bring prosperity and stability to the country.
Polling began at 8 a.m. and will continue till 5.00 p.m. There are a total of 56,322,632 registered voters with 180,065 ballot boxes across the country, reports Anadolu news agency.
Erdogan, who is representing the People's Alliance formed by the Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), must secure more than 50 per cent of the vote for an outright win. If the threshold is not reached, a runoff could be held on July 8 between the leading two contenders, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
Five candidates are in the fray against Erdogan who has been in power since he was elected Prime Minister in 2003.
Deemed his main rival, physics teacher Muharrem Ince is backed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and has wooed crowds with an engaging election campaign.
His rallies in Turkey's three main cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir drew massive numbers.
Also challenging Erdogan is former Interior Minister Meral Aksener, Hurriyet reported.
The only female candidate, Aksener broke away from Turkey's main nationalist party over its support for Erdogan and formed the centre-right and nationalist Good Party (IYI Party).
Turkey will also be electing 600 lawmakers to parliament - 50 more than in the previous assembly. For the parliamentary polls, eight political parties are in the fray.
Voters will cast two separate ballot papers in the same envelope -- one for the presidential and one for the parliamentary elections.
After the voting ends, ballots cast for the presidential candidates will be counted first.
Some 1.49 million expats voted in a 13-day period between June 7-19 at 123 Turkish missions abroad.
Whoever wins the election will be given sweeping new powers, as the role of Prime Minister is dissolved and the President gains the authority to issue laws by decree, reports CNN.
Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics since 2003.
He implemented policies that encouraged sustained economic growth and development, challenged Turkey's secular foundations by bringing Islamic conservatism to public life and gutted public institutions by having tens of thousands arrested following a failed military coup in 2016.
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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
