YEREVAN, JUNE 25, ARMENPRESS. Turkey’s incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been re-elected, as 99% of ballots have been counted so far in the general elections.  Turkey held both presidential and parliamentary elections June 24.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Erdogan, leader of the AKP party, has garnered 52,5% of votes.

Erdogan’s main rival Muharrem İnce from CHP received 30,6%.

Selahattin Demirtas from HDP, who ran for presidency from prison, got 8,3%.

The parliamentary election resulted in the following composition – the ruling AKP will have 293 seats, CHP will have 146 seats, HDP will have 67 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party MHP will have 50 seats and the IYI party will have 44 seats.  The ruling AKP party ran in an alliance with MHP – the Nationalist Movement Party. Thus, Erdogan’s alliance will have 343 seats in the 600-seat parliament.

A record high turnout was recorded – 87,5%.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters after the results were announced early Monday from a balcony of Justice and Development (AKP) Party headquarters in capital Ankara, Erdogan said “every one of the 81 million Turkish citizens is a winner”, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

"Winners of June 24 elections are Turkey, Turkish nation, sufferers of our region and all oppressed in the world," he said, according to Anadolu.

He also thanked Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader, members and voters.

"I would like to express my gratitude to my people, my brothers and sisters who put their trust in me, my alliance and my party," he said, according to Anadolu.

“Democracy is the winner of Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections”, he said, noting that the results of the parliamentary elections aren’t what he expected.

After this re-election, Erdogan will have a lot more powers as the constitution has beefed-up the president’s authorities. These include: Directly appointing top public officials, including ministers and vice-presidents, the power to intervene in the country's legal system, the power to impose a state of emergency.

In addition to those changes, the job of prime minister will be scrapped.

The country is set to transition from a parliamentary system to a full presidential system.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan