Embattled Turkey PM predicts victory in key local polls

ISTANBUL: Turkey´s premier voiced confidence his Islamic-rooted party will triumph in bellwether local elections Sunday, despite turbulent months marked by mass protests, corruption scandals and Internet blocks.

After an acrimonious election campaign, "our people will tell the truth today," said Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Justice and Development Party, after casting his ballot in Istanbul.

"What the people say is what it is," declared the one-time mayor of the megacity, his voice still hoarse after delivering multiple daily speeches for weeks in a cross-country marathon campaign.

The outcome will be a crucial popularity test for Erdogan who has been eyeing a run for the presidency in August -- the first time voters will directly elect the head of state -- or perhaps ask his party to change rules and allow him a fourth term as prime minister.

Turkish voters were out in force, with turnout expected to top 80 percent, to elect city mayors and provincial assembly members in a municipal elections regarded as a referendum on Erdogan´s 11-year-rule.The recent political turmoil -- fought out in fierce street clashes and explosive Internet leaks -- has left Turkey polarised between Erdogan´s Muslim conservative supporters and a secular political camp.

The premier´s heavy-handed response to being challenged on the streets and online has included a deadly police crackdown on rallies in Istanbul´s Gezi Park, and blocks on Twitter and YouTube.

The clampdown has alienated many of Turkey´s NATO allies and detracted from Erdogan´s much lauded record of driving an economic boom and transforming the country spanning Europe and Asia into an emerging global player.
- ´Democracy must be cleansed´ -

"Our democracy must be strengthened and cleansed," said Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the main opposition Republican People´s Party as he cast his vote, vowing to build "a pleasant society".

One first-time voter, 19-year-old student Selin, said: "I was at the Gezi demonstrations and I will vote for democracy and a better life, freed from Erdogan rule."

Two activists of the group Femen, which has backed the Gezi movement and protested the Twitter ban, were arrested after staging a bare-breasted protest with the words "Ban Erdogan" written across their chests.

More than 50 million voters were eligible to cast their ballots, from snow-hit mountain areas in the east to remote Anatolian villages, the capital Ankara and the bustling metropolis of Istanbul.

In much of the country his party, the AK -- a play on the Turkish word for "white", suggesting purity -- commands solid support and has drawn large crowds cheering the man they dub "the sultan".

One Erdogan supporter, Nurcan Caliskan, 38, an Istanbul mother of three wearing a headscarf, said "we´re here to show with our votes that Erdogan can weather all kinds of attacks".

"I don´t think he has taken a sinful bite," she added, referring to the claims of bribes and kickbacks. "Even if he did, I believe he has done it for the good of his country."

"Don´t you see all the hospitals, schools and roads he has built?"