Turkey | Citizens head to the polls in crucial parliamentary election

Turkey was holding a crucial parliamentary election yesterday that will determine whether ruling party lawmakers can rewrite the constitution to bolster the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan himself was not on the ballot. Still, the election is effectively a referendum on whether to endow his office with extraordinary powers that would significantly change Turkish democracy and prolong his reign as the country’s most powerful politician.
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, the AKP, is expected to win significantly more votes than any opposition party but it must win a supermajority of the 550 seats in parliament to change the constitution.
All eyes will be on the results for the main Kurdish party, HDP. If it crosses a 10 percent threshold for entering parliament as a party, that would extinguish AKP’s constitutional plans.
The vote comes amid high tensions following bombings Friday during a HDP rally that killed 2 people and injured scores. Yesterday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said a suspect had been detained in the case, but provided no other details.
More than 53 million voters in Turkey and abroad are eligible to choose the deputies to the Grand National Assembly. If the ruling AKP wins a majority of 330 seats, it could call for a national referendum to change the constitution. If the party captures 367 seats, it could vote in a change without a referendum. AP