Ankara: Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has surged into the lead in the country's first direct presidential election, early vote counts suggest.
After almost half of the votes were counted, Erdogan got 56 percent of the votes, MENA news agency cited Turkish media as saying.
With nearly 93 percent of the votes counted, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, former Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, could gain just 37 percent.
Selahattin Demirtas, the head of the leftist pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party, is in third place with just over 9 percent.
The presidential election, sandwiched between the local polls back in March and the upcoming general elections in June 2015, is the first ever to be decided by popular vote.
It is widely seen as a referendum on the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan, standing for the ruling Justice and Development Party.
Erdogan, 60, said he wanted to turn the largely ceremonial post of the president into the country's executive powerhouse.
He has been prime minister since 2003 and is barred from standing for that office again.
Erdogan needs more than 50 percent of the vote for an outright victory, otherwise he will face a second round Aug 24.
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