Turkey's Erdogan takes early lead in national election, state-run news agency says

Early returns from Turkey's national election Sunday had President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a solid lead after some 47% of ballot boxes were counted, the Turkish state-run news agency said, while the longtime leader's main challenger disputed the numbers that showed him trailing.

Erdogan, who has governed NATO member Turkey as either prime minister or president for two decades, had 52.2% of the vote from the partial count, compared to 41.9% garnered by opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the Anadolu Agency reported.

In the run-up to the election, opinion surveys had indicated the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan narrowly trailed his challenger. The race, which largely centered on domestic issues such as the economy, civil rights and a February earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people, had appeared to be shaping up as the toughest re-election bid of the Turkish leader's 20-year rule.