ANKARA
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey's first direct presidential election by an absolute majority in the first round Sunday, making a second round scheduled for Aug. 24 unnecessary, Turkey's Supreme Election Board said late Sunday.
"We obtained 99 per cent of the votes," said Sadi Guven, the president of the board. "We confirm that Erdogan took the absolute majority of the votes."
Guven said the exact numbers would be announced Monday.
The results have already been delivered to the parties, Guven said. The election board has cancelled plans to print ballots for a possible run-off and has cancelled any election preparations for Turkish citizens living overseas, he said.
Had Erdogan not garnered more than 50 per cent of the vote on Sunday, he and the second-place finisher would have faced each other in another round on August 24.
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