Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to have easily won re-election with his Justice and Development Party (AKP) winning almost 48 per cent of the vote, a result that will allow them to comfortably form a single-party government, DPA reported. With just over 70 per cent of the vote counted, the AKP vote nationwide stood at 47.6 per cent, ahead of Republican People's Party (CHP) on 19.9 per cent and Nationalist Movement Party coming in third on 14.7 per cent of the vote. No other party looked close to passing the 10 per cent of the vote needed to be represented in parliament although a number of pro- Kurdish independents looked set to be elected. According to the NTV private television station such a result would see the AKP winning 345 seats in the 550-seat parliament. The CHP would form the main opposition party with 109 seats and the MHP would hold 73 seats.
