(FOX NEWS) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appeared to have been returned to office with broadly expanded powers Sunday, as unofficial results showed him garnering enough support to avoid a runoff.
With 96.8 percent of the country's ballot boxes counted, Erdogan held 52.6 percent of the vote, with his main rival Muharrem Ince at 30.8 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. Kurdish candidate Selahattin Demirtas, who ran his campaign from jail, where he is being held pending trial on terrorism-related charges, was garnering 8.1 percent. Former Interior Minister Meral Aksener, who broke away from Turkey's main nationalist party over its support for Erdogan, received 7.4 percent of the vote.
"The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty," said Erdogan, who also claimed victory for the People's Alliance, an electoral coalition between his ruling Justice and Development Party and the small Nationalist Movement Party.
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