Turkish President Erdogan meets presidential candidate

By Kenan Bozdogan

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday met with the presidential candidate of ATA (Ancestral) Alliance, Sinan Ogan.

The meeting was held in Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul and took about an hour.

Millions of voters went to polls on Sunday to elect the country's next president and the members of its 600-seat parliament.

Voter turnout in the elections was 88.92%, with the turnout from Turkish citizens abroad at 52.69%, according to Ahmet Yener, head of the Supreme Election Council.

The first round of voting ended with no candidate able to clear the required 50% threshold, but incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the lead, Yener said, citing unofficial results.

Erdogan finished the first round with 49.51% of the vote, while his closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), came second at 44.88%, Yener said.

Sinan Ogan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance got 5.17%, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.44%.

As no candidate was able to win an outright majority in Sunday’s vote, a second-round runoff will be held on May 28.