Turkey: Partial results show Erdogan leading in elections

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan took a commanding lead in his bid today for a presidency with broadly expanded powers, with partial results reported by the country's state-run news agency showing him with more than 50 percent of the vote enough to avoid a runoff.

The high-stakes presidential contest and a parliamentary election also held Sunday were set to either consolidate Erdogan's grip on power or curtail his vast political ambitions.

The vote will complete Turkey's transition from a parliamentary to a new executive presidential system, a move approved in a referendum last year.

For an outright win in the presidential race, Erdogan needs more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off on July 8.

With nearly 80 percent of the country's ballot boxes counted, Erdogan was at 54.3 percent of the vote, with his main rival Muharrem Ince at 29.9 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas, who ran his campaign from jail, where he is being held pending trial on terrorism-related charges, was garnering 7.2 percent. He has called the charges trumped-up and politically motivated.

In the parliamentary vote, with 74 percent of ballot boxes counted, Erdogan's People's