Erdogan Faces Challenges as Country Votes

This Sunday, citizens in Turkey are heading towards ballot boxes in elections presenting the biggest threat to President Recep Tayip Erdogan in his 15 years of leadership.

About 59 million people have the right to vote in these presidential and parliamentary elections, but regardless of who wins, the state will face major changes, the BBC reports.

Erdogan has dominated Turkish politics since 2003, when he was elected prime minister and began changes in the country. It challenged the country's secularisation, bringing conservative Islamic politics to the public sphere and institutions. Last year, Erdogan won a referendum enabling him to turn parliamentarians into a system where the primary power belongs to the president.

Erdogan has indicated that these elections have another feature, and that Turkey is currently doing a democratic revolution along with these elections.

The turnout looks good, even the information I have received from all of Turkey shows this. While in the world's elections, turnout is at 30 per cent, Turkey has surpassed these. Turnout at 85 per cent in recent elections shows the progress of democracy, the level of democratic maturity in Turkey”, he said.