Turkey elections live: Erdogan celebrates victory in Istanbul
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Anadolu Agency says 55 percent of votes have been counted:
Erdogan: 55.8 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 44.20 percent
Anka, meanwhile, has 59.4 percent of votes counted:
Erdogan: 49.01 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 50.99 percent
Anka, a rival news agency to Anadolu also tracking results, has the candidates closer after 41 percent of ballots counted:
Erdogan: 49.14 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 50.86 percent
A reminder that in the first round, Anadolu and Anka's estimates began quite far apart but grew closer as the night went on to essentially match up. That night, Anadolu also had Erdogan streaks ahead to begin with.
The broadcast ban has been lifted by the Supreme Election Board and the first results can be reported.
With 35 percent of the votes counted, the official Anadolu Agency has:
Erdogan: 58 percent
Kilicdaroglu: 42 percent
The turnout rate is 84.4 percent, Anadolu says.
In the southern city of Gaziantep, a woman reportedly born in the Ottoman era cast her vote.
Fatma Tiras, 113, was born in 1910 according to her identity card.
She has six children and 38 grandchildren, local media report, and was brought to an elementary school to vote by her daughter and a local official.
Tiras, who has seen three sultans, 12 presidents and 33 prime ministers, wore a cast on her arm, which she reportedly injured during the twin earthquakes in February.
Clearly, though turnout and enthusiasm may be down compared to the first round on 14 May, unusual sights have still graced polling stations up and down the country.
In southwestern Adana, Spiderman dropped by to vote. MEE cannot confirm or deny whether the masked man’s name was Petrus Peker.
Elsewhere, a man was wheeled in on a stretcher to vote. A reminder of how seriously Turkish people take voting in a country where a turnout of around 80 percent is considered sluggish.
Turkish star Merve Dizdar was given a hero's welcome at a polling station in Istanbul, a day after winning best actress at the Cannes Film Festival.
Dizdar was handed flowers and loudly cheered and clapped as she arrived to cast her vote.
She became Turkey’s first woman to win the top acting prize at Cannes, for her performance in About Dry Grasses.
During her acceptance speech last night, Dizdar hailed Turkish women fighting for their rights.
She said she dedicated the award to her “sisters” who “take action to strengthen the struggle of women” and fight for “the good days they deserve in Turkey.”
“My character Nuray is a woman who struggles for her beliefs and existence and has to pay a price for this cause,” Dizdar added.
“Being a woman in the place I live requires knowing the feelings of Nuray by heart since the day I was born.”
The speech angered some pro-government figures, who accused her of bad-mouthing the country.
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Here's what you need to know about what will happen in the next few hours after polls closed:
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The counting process began as soon as polls closed
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It will likely take less time to count votes than the first round, which included ballots for parliament candidates
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There are no exit polls in Turkey - don't expect one
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Results will start to trickle in from the early evening onwards
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A broadcast ban on results is expected to be lifted around 6:30 pm local time (15:30 GMT)
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By midnight, we should have a clear idea who will be Turkey's president for the next five years
Polls have closed across Turkey in the presidential run-off election, the first in the nation's history.
Middle East Eye received reports of voter turnout being lower than in the first round on 14 May, but the overall rate will likely still be over 80 percent.
The voting generally took place in a calm atmosphere nationwide aside from a few reports of small-scale scuffles and election irregularities, especially in the province of Sanliurfa.
Despite the reports, opposition leaders have not made any formal statements about possible electoral irregularities or vote stuffing.
An Istanbul prosecutor issued arrest warrants against the owners of popular opposition-leaning Twitter accounts for allegedly spreading fake news.
The relatively low turnout rate has pushed both sides of the race to urge their supporters to go out and vote, as neither camp could predict a victory with certainty.
As MEE reported previously, whoever manages to get a higher turnout rate among their supporters will be closer to the finish line.
Counting has now begun after polls closed and the process is not likely to take very long.
The Supreme Election Board is expected to lift a broadcast ban on the results around 6:30pm local time (15:30 GMT) as early results start to trickle in.
Both sides of the presidential election are urging their supporters to go out and vote, in a final push before polls close.
Kilicdaroglu tweeted to those who hadn't voted to "go to the ballot box" and not be "lazy". He described the country's future as being "as close as walking distance".
Meanwhile, Erdogan's ruling AK party has sent multiple text messages calling on its supporters to vote as soon as possible.
The messages allude to turnout potentially being low, something neither camp wants.
Polls are set to close in just over an hour, at 5pm local time.
In the heart of the Kurdish southeast, voter clarity has been clouded by the questionable alliance between Kemal Kilicdaroglu and a far-right party.
In the first round of the presidential election, Kurdish voters rallied behind the opposition candidate, giving him more support than in his stronghold of Izmir in the west.
It was almost unheard of for Kurdish voters to give that many votes to a candidate from the Republican People's Party (CHP), which has a long history of hostility towards the minority population.
But the will to vote President Recep Tayyip Erdogan out of office seemed to trump all else.
'In this system, the Kurds are already ignored. Let them fight their own. What they do is also none of my business'
- Diyarbakir resident
However, after Kilicdaroglu failed to secure a win in the first round, he adopted a harsher nationalist tone and struck an alliance with the ultranationalist politician Umit Ozdag, an unpopular figure among Kurds.
This has raised questions on whether voter turnout would be muted in Kurdish-dominated areas in the southeast.
A resident of Diyarbakir, a Kurdish majority province with two million population, said she was not voting because neither side has offered the Kurds anything.
When asked whether her decision could help Erdogan in the race, the 25-year-old, who did not wish to reveal her name, said she didn't care.
"This does not concern me at all. In this system, the Kurds are already ignored. Let them fight their own. What they do is also none of my business," she told MEE.
Despite this, voter turnout in Diyarbakir appeared to be high, according to an MEE correspondent.
Nihat Alakus, who cast his ballot at Sait Pasa Secondary School with his wife and two daughters, said the alliance with Ozdag did not change anything for him.
"Ozdag himself and his discourses do not concern us. We want a democratic change in the management of the country. Our main request is for Erdogan to go. That's why we voted for change," the 65-year-old tradesman told MEE.
Aydin Kizil, 43, who voted at Ali Emiri Secondary School in Yenisehir District, said he voted for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the parliamentary elections on 14 May, but choose to go with Kilicdaroglu for the presidency.
"Our party took the majority in the parliament. If they were in the minority in the parliament, I would vote for Erdogan," Kizil told MEE.
"However, a party and its leader should not be given so much power. That's why I voted for Kilicdaroglu, albeit unintentionally."
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into social media accounts alleged to have spread misinformation.
Profiles accused of disseminating provocative and manipulative posts with false information were targeted, according to report by state-run TRT.
The posts were aimed at "disrupting public order and public peace in a way that creates misleading, unrealistic and false perceptions".
Five popular Twitter accounts were issued with arrest warrants by the prosecutor: Haber Report, DarkWeb Haber, Militer Doktrin, Muhbir (ajansmuhbir) and Solcu Gazete.
Compared with the first round, polling stations seem to be attracting fewer voters by midday, according to Middle East Eye correspondent in Istanbul Yusuf Selman Inanc.
An election official told MEE that only 80 people voted by noon at the polling station where he is working, compared with almost 200 out of 350 voters who cast their ballot by this stage on 14 May.
In Istanbul's Maltepe district, a stronghold of the Republican People's Party (CHP), there were no queues outside polling stations, indicating frustration among opposition voters.
'Of course, we came again to vote for Kilicdaroglu, even though victory seems increasingly difficult'
- Ali, Istanbul resident
"Of course, we came again to vote for Kilicdaroglu, even though victory seems increasingly difficult," Ali, a 22-year-old university student, told MEE.
"At the very least, we want to show Erdogan that almost half of the country does not support his autocratic rule."
On the other hand, Betul Yilmaz, an Erdogan supporter, seemed happy at the prospect of another election win for the president.
"We need Erdogan to fight against terrorism, improve our country, and increase the production of local goods," she told MEE.
Ahmet, a Kurdish restaurant owner, said he was reluctantly voting for Kilicdaroglu again.
"As a Kurd, I don't approve of his alliance with [ultra-nationalist] Umit Ozdag. However, we want to see an end to Erdogan's rule."
Ozdag, leader of the far-right Victory Party, is known for his anti-refugee stances and does not enjoy a good reputation among Kurdish voters.
His alliance with Kilicdaroglu, announced earlier this week, has caused discontent in the Kurdish population, suggesting that turnout in Kurdish-dominated cities could be lower than in the earlier round, which would be a blow for Kilicdaroglu.
A man in a hospital bed being pushed by paramedics arrived at a polling station earlier today, to warm applause from fellow voters.
Similar scenes occurred two weeks ago, with people in stretchers and wheelchairs turning up to take part in the first round.
It typifies Turkey's strong voting culture and long history of high voter turnout.
The turnout two weeks ago stood at an impressive 88.8 percent of around 64 million eligible voters.
A similar turnout above 80 percent is expected in today's run-off.
Unlike the first round of voting, there appears to be a relaxed atmosphere at polling stations, with little signs of congestion.
So much so that one voter turned up to express her democratic right alongside her lamb.
Elsewhere, cats were spotted hanging out with polling station officials.
"Friends, our ballot box president looks like a very problematic person, which party do you think[?]" a social media user joked.
During the first round of voting on 14 May, there were lengthy queues across polling stations in Turkey.
On that day, voters were electing not only a president but parliamentary representatives too.
The latter elections involved a whopping 26 parties, with some voters struggling to fold their long ballot paper into a narrow envelope.
Today it's just a small piece of paper with two names: Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu.
