Polls Close in Turkey's Early Election

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in Istanbul, Turkey, on November 01, 2015. Photo by BTA/Xinhua

Voting has ended all across Turkey as the country is holding its second general election in less than half a year.

In some 32 eastern cities, voting ended an hour earlier.

First results are expected over the course of the next few hours. In theory, a ban on reporting results will be in force until 21:00 local time (18:00 GMT), but initial figures might start to emerge earlier.

Turnout was 86% based on 8.6% of votes cast, according to reports of state broadcaster TRT, in a country where voting is compulsory.

The snap poll was called after parties in Turkey failed to agree on the formation of a coalition government in the aftermath of the June 7 election. The latter saw the Justice and Development Party (AKP), founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, lose its majority for the first time since it won by a landslide in 2002.

Cases of violation - but no serious incidents - were reported around the country.

In Kayseri, a constituency of nearly a million inhabitants, police have received more than 2000 complaints about banners and posters of political parties that remained intact all around the city in breach of election law, H?rriyet Daily News has reported.

In Istanbul, a scuffle was reported involving a voter of AKP and pro-Kurdish HDP as the former tore apart a voting envelope used by the latter to cast a ballot. That grew into a fight between groups of supporters, with police intervening with teargas to stop their quarrel.

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