Erdogan declares victory in elections, opposition raises doubts
ISTANBUL - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in elections on Sunday, citing what he said was a public mandate for him and the alliance led by his ruling AK Party.
Erdogan the most popular, and divisive, leader in recent Turkish history, said there would be no turning back from where he and the Islamist-rooted AK Party had brought the economy.
"Our people have given us the job of carrying out the presidential and executive posts," he said in a short speech from Istanbul.
"I hope nobody will try to cast a shadow on the results and harm democracy in order to hide their own failure."
In the opposition camp, the CHP had 23 percent and the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) 11 percent - above the threshold it needs to reach to enter parliament.
The HDP's presidential candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, has waged his election campaign from a prison near the Greek border as he awaits trial on terrorism-related charges, which he denies. He had 7 percent, based on 90 percent of votes cast.
The opposition raised doubts about the accuracy and reliability of the figures released by state-run Anadolu news agency, the sole distributor of the official vote tally.
