Turks vote for president as Erdogan envisages 'new Turkey'

ISTANBUL - Turks voted in their country's first presidential election on Sunday with Tayyip Erdogan poised to win and fulfil his dream of what he calls a "new Turkey" and what his opponents say will be an increasingly authoritarian nation.

A victory for Erdogan would seal his place in history after more than a decade as prime minister in which Turkey has emerged as a regional economic power, riding a wave of religiously conservative support to transform the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923.

But his critics warn that a President Erdogan, with his roots in political Islam and intolerance of dissent, would lead the NATO member and European Union candidate further away from Ataturk's secular ideals.

In a tea house in the working-class Istanbul district of Tophane, men watching election coverage on television praised Erdogan as a pious man of the people who had boosted Turkey's status both economically and on the international stage.

"Erdogan is on the side of the underdog. He is the defender against injustice. While the Arab world was silent, he spoke out against Israel on Gaza," said jeweller Murat, 42, who declined to give his family name.

"This country was ruined by the old politicians, they lied to us. They caused economic crises, the PKK violence," he said.

Erdogan has launched a peace process with Kurdish PKK militants to end a conflict which has killed 40,000 people in 30 years.

Polling stations opened at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) with 53 million Turks eligible to vote. Morning turnout levels appeared lower than a local election in March, an impression confirmed by one polling station official. Voting ends at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Opinion polls put Erdogan, 60, far ahead of two rivals competing for a five-year term as president. Parliament has in the past chosen the head of state but this was changed under a law pushed through by Erdogan's government.

He has set his sights on serving two presidential terms, keeping him in power past 2023, the 100th anniversary of the secular republic. For a leader who refers frequently to Ottoman history in his speeches, the date has special significance.

"God willing a new Turkey will be established ... a strong Turkey is rising again from the ashes," Erdogan said on Saturday in his final campaign speech in the conservative stronghold of Konya in central Turkey.

"Let's leave the old Turkey behind. The politics of polarisation, divisiveness and fear has passed its expiry date," he told a crowd of thousands who waved Turkish and Erdogan campaign flags and chanted his name.

His vision of a new Turkey left voters cold at one polling station in the capital Ankara, where many complained of deep polarisation under Erdogan and said only his AK Party loyalists had benefited from changes in the past decade.

"The freedom that he says has increased is for his own supporters. You can only be free if you support him. He has polarised this country in a way nobody has before," said Yucel Duranoglu, 45, who works for a private company.

"ONE-MAN RULE"

The prime minister has promised to exercise the full powers granted to him by current laws, unlike his predecessors who have played a mainly ceremonial role. But he also plans to change the constitution to establish a fully executive presidency.

The current constitution, written under military rule after a 1980 coup, would enable him to chair cabinet meetings and appoint the premier and members of top judicial bodies including the constitutional court and supreme council of judges.

Opinion polls put Erdogan's support at 55-56 per cent, giving him the majority he needed to win on Sunday. If there is no outright winner, a second round will be held on Aug. 24.

Surveys placed him some 20 points ahead of the main opposition candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Selahattin Demirtas, head of the pro-Kurdish left-wing People's Democratic Party, is seen winning just under 10 per cent of the vote.

Ihsanoglu voted in a wealthy district of Istanbul near the Bosphorus strait while Demirtas cast his vote in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Erdogan was set to vote in Istanbul in the afternoon.

Erdogan's ruling AK Party scored a clear victory in local elections in March and a triumph on Sunday would emphatically put an end to the toughest year of his time in power.

He was shaken by nationwide anti-government protests last summer, and months later, Erdogan and his inner circle were targeted by a corruption investigation and a power struggle with his former ally, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

He accuses Gulen of seeking to overthrow him and has pledged as president to continue purging institutions such as the police and judiciary where Gulen is believed to wield influence.

Despite the challenges Erdogan has faced, there was an air of resignation among many voters who oppose him.

"I am almost depressed. I worry for my country because I increasingly feel like an alien here. The prime minister is talking about a Turkey that I don't recognise," said Erkan Sonmez, 43, who works in an import-export business. "I can no longer speak to my neighbours who vote for the AK Party, does that sound like a peaceful community to you?"