Countdown begins for Turkey’s snap elections amid strict security

Turkish people will go to the polling stations on Sunday, just five months after the 7 June polls, which failed to produce a majority.

Polls across the 81 provinces opened at 08:00 (local time) and closed at 17:00 (local time) İnitial results are expected late Sunday. About 53 million citizens, aged 18 and over, are registered to vote at the 270,000 polling stations, usually public buildings and schools, across Turkey.

President Recep Tayyp Erdoğan has first tasked his handpicked successor Ahmet Davutoğlu to seek a junior partner in a coalition with the AK Party. But the coalition talks have failed. In late August, Erdoğan requested the AK Party's leader to form an interim government to take the country to early elections in early November.

The secularist republicans and right-wing nationalists have refused Davutoglu's call to take place in a broad power-sharing government. The pro-Kurdish People's Democract Party (HDP) said it has been eager to do so, if only AK Party avoids from unilaterally exercising executive powers.

CHP has asked for a mandate to form a new government to run the country for the next four years. The president, however, instead opted for a re-run of the polls.

The elections come three weeks after the deadliest terror attack in Turkey's history, which left at least 102 dead at a peace rally near the central train station in the capital, Ankara. Police said at least 13 people were detained after the double explosions which also left hundreds injured.

Ankara chief public prosecutor's office has recently stated that initial findings indicate the twin suicide explosions have aimed to disrupt Turkey's political stability by sabotating the upcoming elections. The prosecutor has confirmed that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is closely linked with the terrorist attack. A cell-type terrorist group, based in the province of Gaziantep, has been involved in terrorist activity on the order of ISIL, the prosecutor's office said.

In the last election, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) garnered 41 percent of the votes, ensuring 258 seats in the 550-seat Parliament, but lost its parliamentary majority for the first time in 13 years. The party's incumbent, Ahmet Davutoğlu, needs to enforce at leat 276 seats to form a cabinet single-handedly. He has been a popular leader since taking the helm of the AK Party. The 56-year-old was actually expected to cruise back into office in the June polls, contrary to the election results.

Even if the AK Party wins a consecutive fourth term, it needs at least 367 seats, which means two-thirds of the National Assembly, to push amendments to the country's 33-year-old Constitution, prepared in the aftermath of the 1980 military coup.

The AK Party dominated the Turkish political landscape for over a decade, by gaining mass support among the conservative communities in rural areas in Anatolia. The suprise result in the June elections is the worst political setback the party has faced since its first sweeping election victory in 2002.

The People's Republic Party, (CHP) came second in the elections with 131 seats and 25 percent of the votes. Under the leadership of left-leaning and firmly secular Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the party has received votes from mostly coastal areas. The staunch secularists voted for CHP as it traditionally represents their views. Kılıçdaroğlu, a less popular 66-year-old leader and the ex-general manager of Turkey's Social Insurance Institution, (SGK), was said to have held a more vicious election campaign than his predecessor Deniz Baykal, a veteran lawyer in his late 70s.

The far-right Nationalist Movement Party, (MHP) has mustered 16.5 percent of the votes, becoming the third largest party in the polls. It secured 82 seats in the Parliament. The far-right group won an overall majority in the southern province of Osmaniye, said the final election results.

The surprise election outcome has also seen the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP) crossing the 10 percent national threshold, securing seats for the first time. It won 80 seats with nearly 13 percent of the votes. The southeastern Kurdish votes created a tidal wave which brought HDP its new-found success.

Before the elections, the Kurdish-dominated party had been plunged into a rift over the election results. Many in the party has accused its co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş, of taking a great risk to enter the Parliament. The left-leaning HDP has run as a party for the first time in the history of the Kurdish movement. They gained representation in the Parliament by propelling independents at the previous polls in 2007 and 2011.

Many in Turkey suggested the country could head back to the polls in November 2015 as none of the political blocks in the Parliament had achieved a majority to a form a single-party government.

The AK Party is the most successful political movement in Turkey's democratic history. It has dominated the Turkish political landscape since the early 2000s. In the 2002 elections, AKP won almost 60 percent of the seats in Parliament. It has consistently managed to increase its share of votes in subsequent elections. It had 34 percent of the votes in the first polls, which brought the party to power. In the 2007 elections, it succeeded in receiving 46 percent of the votes and it managed to increase its votes to 49 percent in its third consecutive election victory in 2011.

The three-term Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, won the country's first-ever direct presidential election on Aug 10, 2014, winning 51.8 percent of the votes. Of the challengers, the closest to Erdoğan was the main opposition's Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, trailing behind at 38.4. Erdoğan's third rival, Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtaş, collected around 9 percent of the votes.

With its slogan, “Turkey is ready, the goal is 2023," the AK Party has outlined its priorities for the centennial of the establishment of the modern Republic. The party has listed its four main priorities as improving social welfare, working for a normalization of politics, advancing democracy and taking a place among the top 10 world economies.