Erdoğan to become president: initial results

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was set to win a crushing first-round victory on Sunday in Turkey's presidential elections, initial results said.

Erdoğan was set to win around 55 percent of the vote, his main rival Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu 36 percent of the vote and Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtaş 8.4 percent of the vote, Turkish television channels said, based on a 65 percent vote count.

Largest support for Erdoğan came from Rize, where he has received 81 percent of the vote in his hometown, a province located in eastern part of the Black Sea region in Turkey.

About 75 percent of those eligible to vote have participated in the elections.