Voting counting is under way in Turkey as the country held its first simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections.

More than 56 million people were eligible to vote in Sunday's elections, in more than 180,000 ballot boxes across Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be looking for a first round knockout and an overall majority for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).

But both these goals are in doubt in the face of an energetic campaign by his rival from the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), Muharrem Ince.

Presidential race - 71.36 percent of votes counted

• Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 55.02 percent

• Muharrem Ince: 29.45 percent

• Meral Aksener: 7.48 percent

• Selahattin Demirtas: 6.95 percent

  • Meral Aksener, IYI Party leader and presidential candidate, accused Anadolu Agency of manipulation, and urged party observers not to leave ballot boxes until the end of the process.

    
    

    • The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) also blamed the state-run Anadolu for what it claims is a manipulation of the early election results.

    • "Let us not leave the ballot boxes, let us protect our votes until the last moment," the party said on Twitter.

    Parliamentary race - 57.82 per cent of votes counted

    • People's Alliance (AK Party - MHP): 57.18 percent

    • Nation Alliance (CHP – IYI Party – SP): 31.84 percent

    • HDP: 9.7 percent

      Presidential race - 60 percent of votes counted

      • Recep Tayyip Erdogan: 55.88 percent

      • Muharrem Ince: 28.97 percent

      • Meral Aksener: 7.45 percent

      • Selahattin Demirtas: 6.49 percent

      Half of presidential votes counted

      • Erdogan leads with 56.5 percent after half of the presidential votes have been counted, state media reported.

      Main opposition attacks state media over election results coverage

      • A spokesperson from the main opposition CHP said the state-run media's election results coverage is an attempt to manipulate the public's perception of the polls.

      • Bulent Tezcan, the CHP spokesman, said support for Erdogan would be below the majority required to win the race in the first round.

      Erdogan's AK Party leads parliamentary vote

      • After a quarter of the parliamentary votes counted, the ruling AK Party are in the lead with 48.61 percent.

      • With 40 percent of presidential votes counted, Erdogan is still ahead of the other candidates with 57.1 percent.

      • Muharrem Ince: 28.3 percent.

      • Meral Aksener: 7.5 percent.

      • Selahattin Demirtas: 6.1 percent.

        • According to state broadcaster TRT, voter turnout in the presidential election was 86.82 percent, while participation in the parliamentary vote was 87 percent.

          • Police have stopped a car and seized four sacks full of voting papers in the district of Suruc in Turkey's southeastern province of Urfa.

          • The voting papers were reportedly previously sealed in order to be taken to the schools for voting count, according to Demiroren News Agency.

          • All three people in the car have been detained.

          • "We have taken necessary initiatives to launch administrative and judicial processes regarding alleged safety concerns at certain polling stations in Suruc," Sadi Guven, the head of Supreme Election Board (YSK), said.

          8.1 percent of parliamentary votes counted

          • People's Alliance (AK Party - MHP): 67.06 percent

          • Nation Alliance (CHP – IYI Party – SP): 23.64 percent 

          • HDP: 6.82 percent

          State media: Erdogan leads presidential elections after 20 percent vote count

          • Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads with 59.3 percent after 20 percent of the vote is counted.

          • Main opposition candidate Ince is at 26.4 percent, with HDP leader Selahattin Demirtas at 5.5 percent. 

          • The Turkish electoral board officials say that preliminary results are expected at 6:45pm local time (1545GMT).

          No consensus on presidential system

          • Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, told Al Jazeera that there are plenty of people in the country - such as the opposition's three parties - who oppose the presidential executive system.

          • "What unified the opposition (who don't have much in common with one another ideologically) is the fear that with this system, particularly if both the presidency and the parliament go to the ruling party and its leader, [will result in] such a degree of monopolisation of power without the appropriate mechanisms for checks and balances," he said.

          • "This will actually damage whatever is left of Turkish democracy."

          Explainer: Turkey's pivotal elections

          • These elections mark a new era in Turkey's presidency and its politics.

          • Watch the video below to find out why the changes to Turkey's political system are so significant.

            • Turkey's main opposition presidential candidate Muharrem Ince said Turkish citizens should protect ballot boxes against possible fraud by the ruling AK Party.

            • Speaking after voting in the presidential and parliamentary elections ended at 5pm local time (14:00 GMT) Ince also said members of Turkey's electoral board must do their job "the right way".

            • He said he had no doubt the election results would be "very good".

            Voting ends

            • Polling stations closed across Turkey at 14:00 GMT.

            • There are no exit polls.

            • Vote counting is under way and the first results are expected in a few hours.

            Opposition momentum 

            • Ahmet Kasin Han, an associate professor of international relations at Istanbul's Kadir Has University, says the polls are a major test for Erdogan in the face of a re-energised opposition.

            • "For better part of the past decade, we are seeing for the first time some momentum in the opposition," he told Al Jazeera from Istanbul.

            • "Today's elections are competitive ones thanks to that momentum on the part of the opposition, which proves the resilience of the Turkish democracy."

            Election board to investigate vote-rigging allegations

            • Turkey's Supreme Election Council (YSK) announces it will look into complaints regarding election safety issues in the Suruc district of the southeastern province of Sanlıurfa following claims of vote-rigging. 

            • "We have taken necessary initiatives to launch administrative and judicial processes regarding alleged safety concerns at certain polling stations in Suruc," says YSK head Sadi Guven.

            • The National Alliance fields individual presidential candidates, including CHP's Muharrem Ince, and Meral Aksener who leads IYI Party.

            • The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) enters elections without an alliance. Its presidential candidate is imprisoned leader Selahattin Demirtas.