Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) scored a stunning victory, by winning parliamentary majority in latest polls.
The party, founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, won over 49 percent of the vote to secure 316 seats in the 550-member parliament, easily enough to form a government on its own.
Nearly a million Turks living abroad have already cast their ballots at 113 embassies and consulates last week, while a total of 175,006 polling stations were open countrywide.
The pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), led by Selahattin Demirtas, lost support but appeared to have scraped over the 10-percent threshold to stay in parliament.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) scored about 25 percent of the vote, similar to its June result.
The political landsape has changed dramatically in Turkey since June, with the country even more divided along ethnic and sectarian lines.
The threat of religiously fuelled violence has also overshadowed the elections after a string of attacks blamed on the Islamic State (IS) group, including twin suicide bombings on an Ankara peace rally last month that killed 102 people – the bloodiest in Turkey’s modern history.
In June, the AKP failed to get enough votes to form a government and coalition attempts failed to seat a Cabinet. Analysts predict that the renewed mandate for the AKP could to revive efforts by Erdogan to transform the Turkish government into a presidential system.