Iran Press/Asia: Early results are so far extremely close in Turkey's local elections, in which the opposition CHP candidate for mayor has claimed a narrow victory in Ankara, where 91.4% votes have been counted.
In Istanbul, the governing AK Party said it had won a tight victory by less than one percentage point, BBC reported.
However, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan maintained that his AK Party (Justice and Development Party, AKP) had come "top by far".
"Results show that, as the AKP, we emerged from this election as the top party by far, just as has been the case since the 3 November 2002 election," Erdogan said.
In Istanbul, the AK party has 48.71% of the vote compared to CHP's 48.65%, but a few votes are still to be counted.
Opposition CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu said: "I know we won in Istanbul, it is very clear."
Ekrem Imamoglu said it was very clear the opposition won in Istanbul
More than 57 million people in the country were registered to vote for mayors and councillors in the election, which came amidst an economic downturn.
This was the first municipal vote since Erdogan assumed sweeping executive powers through last year's presidential election.
State media reported that Erdogan's party won nearly 48 percent of the votes across the country, while the main opposition party, the Republican Peoples' Party (CHP), bagged 31 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, in election-related violence, dozens of people were injured in clashes across Turkey. Two people were shot dead at a polling station in the eastern city of Malatya. Local reports say a fight broke out after a man refused to use a polling booth, preferring to vote in the open. 101/207
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