At least five people were killed on Sunday as Turks voted in local elections likely to give the ruling AK Party a new mandate to press on with key reforms in the European Union candidate country.
-- At least 5 people killed in election violence
-- Ruling party set to win despite high unemployment
-- Erdogan has pledged to reform constitution
-- IMF deal expected after vote
The deaths took place in the mainly Kurdish south-east as rival supporters for non-party village chief posts clashed in several villages, security and hospital sources told Reuters. Nearly 100 people were wounded in the violence.
The south-east is one of the main battlegrounds of the elections because Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan hopes to wrest the region from pro-Kurdish parties in what might prove a historic step towards solving a deadly conflict weighing heavily on the countrys economic and political development.
Voters in the predominantly Muslim country of 72 million people elect mayors and municipal and provincial assemblies, but the vote was seen more as a referendum on the popular Erdogan.
The Islamist-rooted AK Party has won three straight elections since it first crushed secularists in 2002. Most opinion polls show it winning the local polls with about 40 percent of the vote despite record unemployment and an economy hit by the global economic crisis, after years of high economic growth and record foreign investment.
All polls closed by 5 pm (1400 GMT). Initial results are expected to come out later on Sunday. Erdogan has pledged to reform the constitution drafted by the military in 1982 and change the way the Constitutional Court works - steps which would remove some obstacles to EU membership but could revive tensions with secularists who accuse him of pursuing an Islamist agenda. Erdogan denies this.
"Our peoples decision will emerge today and all political parties will respect this," Erdogan said after casting his vote. Campaigning had much of the atmosphere of a general election, rather than that of a local vote. Candidates traded accusations of corruption.
In a 2008 case that rattled financial markets and deeply polarised the country, Turkeys top court almost closed down the AK Party, which is rooted in political Islam but also embraces nationalists and centre-right elements. The IMF and Turkey have been in talks for months on a deal markets say is key to shielding the $750 billion economy from the global crisis. Markets expect Erdogan to complete those talks after Sundays vote.
Erdogan has courted Kurdish support in the impoverished south-east, where some 40,000 have died since 1984 in a conflict between separatists and the government. The AK Party hopes to supplant Kurdish parties in regional administrations. "I voted for the AK Party because they are the best for the country and best for the economy. Unemployment is very high here and there is a very young population and we need jobs and development," said Veysel Kaya, 27, who runs a dried food store in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in the south-east.
Turkeys unemployment rate is at an all-time high of 13.6 percent. The opposition has failed to capitalise on the crisis because it is not seen a viable alternative to carry out political reforms and manage the economy. In an interview on Friday, Erdogan said he would consider it a failure if his party won less in the elections to provincial assemblies than the 47 percent it won in 2007 general elections.
Critics say that Erdogan has lost his reformist spirit since Turkey won EU accession talks in 2005 and is growing autocratic. "I have nothing against the AK Party, but I will vote for the (main opposition party) CHP this time because I think we need change," said Mehmet Demir, a civil servant, voting at a school in Ankara.
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