Voting ends, polls closed in Turkey's crucial parliamentary elections

Voters went to the polls on Sunday, June 7 to cast their votes for Turkey's parliamentary elections to elect 550 deputies for the Turkish Grand National Assembly. According to the results, four parties have passed the national threshold of 10 percent.

99.86 percent of the ballot boxes have been counted: the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) received 40.79 percent, the Republican People's Party (CHP) 25.07 percent, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 16.38 percent, and the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) 12.98 percent of the votes.

According to the results, AK Party gets 258 seats in the parliament, CHP 132, MHP 81, and HDP 79.

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and party leaders joined millions of Turkish citizens going to the polls in the 25th general election which began at 8.00 a.m.

HDP won at CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu's hometown Tunceli, where 99.19% of the boxes opened, with 60.58% of the votes.

A total of 174,240 polling stations were open until 5.00 p.m. local time (1500 GMT). Nearly a million Turks living abroad have also cast their ballots at 122 embassies and consulates.

The votes from 33 ballot stations at airports and border crossings were collected when the polls closed on Sunday.

Voters selected a party, rather than a candidate, in 85 voting districts across the country under the closed list proportional representation system.

The election were overseen by observers from civil society groups and political parties as well as international monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe. 20 parties have competed in the election.

Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) entered the parliament for the first time as a party.