Uneasy Turks vote in crucial election

Turkey is voting in one of its most crucial elections in years, with the country deeply divided in the face of surging Kurdish and Islamic violence and concerns about democracy and the economy.

Sunday's poll is the second in just five months, called after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) was stripped of its parliamentary majority in June for the first time in 13 years and then failed to forge a coalition government.

Opinion polls are predicting a replay, leaving the strategic Muslim-majority nation of 78 million at risk of further instability just as it faces what some warn are existential threats.

Around 385,000 police and gendarmes have been mobilised nationwide, with security particularly high in the restive Kurdish majority southeast, where armoured vehicles and police were seen outside polling stations.

The political landscape has changed dramatically in Turkey since June and the country is even more polarised on ethnic and sectarian lines.

Turks are fearful of a return to all-out war with outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels after fresh violence shattered a 2013 truce in July, just a month after a pro-Kurdish party won seats in parliament for the first time, denying the AKP a majority.

The threat of further jihadist violence is also overshadowing the poll after a string of attacks blamed on the Islamic State group, including twin suicide bombings on an Ankara peace rally last month that killed 102 people - the worst in Turkey's modern history.

Turnout is expected to be high among the 54 million registered voters and there were early queues at polling stations.

Erdogan's conservative, Islamic-leaning AKP is tipped to take between 40 and 43 per cent, paving the way either for a shaky coalition with one of the three other parties likely to win seats, or yet another election.

"We are calling on our people to demonstrate their will and turn this day into a democracy feast ... no matter what the outcome," said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, whose own job could be at risk if the AKP fails to secure an outright victory.

Sunday's vote could also determine the future of Erdogan, the divisive figure who has dominated Turkey's political scene for more than a decade.

The June result wrecked - at least temporarily - his ambition to expand his role into a powerful US-style executive presidency that opponents fear would mean fewer checks and balances on a man seen as increasingly autocratic.

A string of high-profile raids against media groups deemed hostile to Erdogan and the jailing of critical journalists have set alarm bells ringing about the state of democracy in a country that has long aspired to join the European Union.

An inconclusive outcome could be an embarrassment for Turkey as it hosts world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, for a G20 summit on November 15-16.