Pre-election opinion polls suggested that the conservative AKP could win up to 45 percent of the votes, followed by the social-democratic Republican’s People Party, Turkey’s biggest opposition group, that is projected to secure up to 30 percent.
The far-right Nationalist Movement Party and the left-wing pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party could also cross the 10 percent threshold and win seats from the AKP, forcing Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to form Turkey’s first coalition government since 1999.
The AKP, which was founded by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2001, aims to claim enough seats in the parliament to be able to change the Turkish constitution and turn the country into a presidential republic.
Erdogan served as the country’s prime minister before being elected president, currently a largely ceremonial post, in August 2014.
The party needs to capture at least 330 seats to have the right to hold a referendum on constitutional changes.
Some 56 million Turks are eligible to vote for any of the 20 parties listed on the ballot before polling stations close at 5 p.m. local time (14:00 GMT).
