​First Post: Erdogan and AKP-MHP lead amidst conflicting claims

TURKEY - In Brief 24 Jun 2018 by Atilla Yesilada

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At 8 pm Istanbul time, the vote count is proceeding much faster than I had anticipated, thus I decided to start my entries one hour before the scheduled time.Currently, main stream media relying on Anatolian Agency, shows Erdogan leading with 56% of the vote, followed by Muharrem Ince at 29%.In general elections, the AKP-MHP alliance, too, has a commanding lead vs. CHP-Good Party-SP with 58% to 31.5%. Pro-Kurdish HDP is at 9.89%. This is the “official account”, since Anatolian Agency is a state-owned institution. Opposition bastion Halk Tv, relying on “Fair Elections" website, a joint venture by CHP and numerous NGOs reports Erdogan at 53%, followed by Ince at 34%. Both HalkTV and Fair Elections are subject to periodic hacking or official attempts to choke traffic; hence I can’t find alternative data on general elections. I’m also listening to experts commenting on Tv, where the gist of the opinion suggests that the vote count is not a fair representation of the national average. We’ll have to wait another two hours before the race truly shapes up. I hope I’ll be able to provide my first predictions around 9:15 pm.