Official results of Turkey's presidential election released on Official Gazette

ANKARA, Turkey - The final results of Turkey's presidential election held on May 14 was published in the Official Gazette on Friday.

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

According to the Supreme Election Council decision published in the Official Gazette, over 53.99 million out of over 60.72 million registered voters in the country voted in the first round of the presidential election within Turkey, reported Anadolu Agency.

While more than 52.97 million of the votes were valid, 1.2 million were invalid. The voter turnout rate was 88.92 per cent.

The voter turnout abroad was at 49.4 per cent as over 1.69 million people voted in the elections.

Also, some 148,183 people voted at the customs gates.

The total voter turnout stands at 87.04 per cent, according to Official Gazette.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took the lead in the elections, getting over 27.13 million votes, with 49.52 per cent of the votes.

His closest competitor Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), came second at 44.88 per cent, getting 24.59 million votes.

Sinan Ogan of the ATA (Ancestral) Alliance got 5.17 per cent, while Muharrem Ince, who withdrew from the presidential race late last week after ballots had already been printed, got 0.43 per cent.

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