Turkey elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory

This victory will reinforce Erdogan's image of invincibility...

Turkey elections: In the historical runoff to the presidential elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in the polls that posed the biggest challenge to his 20 years of transformative but divisive rule.

Looking at yet another term as President, the 69-year old Erdogan faced down Turkey's biggest economic crisis in generations and a united opposition to take a commanding lead.

Erdogan's win means the President will be able to secure a mandate to continue his increasingly authoritarian rule which has polarised Turkey and strengthened its position as a regional military power.

The official Anadolu state news agency showed the Islamic-rooted leader ahead of his secular opposition rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu by four percentage points, with 97 percent of the vote counted.

This victory will reinforce Erdogan's image of invincibility, after having already redrawn domestic, economic, security and foreign policy in the NATO member country of 85 million people.

NATO member Turkey's longest-serving leader was tested like never before in what was widely seen as the country's most consequential election in its 100-year history as a post-Ottoman republic.