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ANKARA, Turkey Since he took office in 2003, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has given a name to each stage in his consolidation of power in Turkey. First he called himself the apprentice; then the journeyman; and latterly the master. Now, he says a new five-year term would elevate him to the role of "grandmaster" and help him make Turkey one of the world's top powers by the time the republic marks its centenary in 2023.

The most powerful and polarizing leader in Turkish history, Erdogan, 64, is standing for re-election in a presidential vote on Sunday that could cement Turkey's switch from a parliamentary to a presidential system, which was narrowly approved in a referendum last year. He would take an office with vastly expanded powers, in a system that critics have compared to one-man rule. His opponents have promised a return to a parliamentary system with a distinct separation of powers.

Opinion polls have put Erdogan several points ahead of his closest competitor in the presidential race. However, he would need to win more than 50 percent of the votes for an outright first-round victory and that looks less likely. Analysts say the outcome could be decided in a second round runoff on July 8.

Erdogan, who has never lost an election, is this time around facing more robust opposition figures and parties cooperating with each other in an anti-Erdogan alliance. For the first time ever, Turkey will elect a new parliament at the same time, but his Justice and Development party's election campaign has appeared a little flat and uninspired, focusing on past achievements and making odd campaign promises such as the creation of neighborhood "reading houses" offering free tea and cakes. Analysts even speak of the possibility of Justice and Development losing its majority in Parliament.

"(Erdogan) remains by far the most popular politician in Turkey," said Sinan Ulgen of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank. "He is still the one that is the most likely to be elected, but it is not a foregone conclusion."

Erdogan called the presidential and parliamentary elections more than a year earlier than scheduled amid signs that the Turkish economy may be heading toward a downturn. Despite strong growth figures, inflation and unemployment have hit double-digit figures while the lira has lost some 20 percent of its value against the dollar since the start of the year.

Additionally, the polls are being held as nationalist sentiment is high following a Turkish military operation into a Syrian border enclave earlier this year that drove away Syrian Kurdish fighters that Turkey brands as terrorists. Turkey has recently intensified air raids on a suspected Kurdish rebel stronghold in northern Iraq, a move that could further rally votes for Erdogan.

The most powerful leader since the Turkish republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Erdogan remains popular in Turkey's conservative and pious heartland. Many see in him a strong leader who stands up to West, who brought stability, oversaw an infrastructure boom, who improved health care and relaxed strict secular laws, for instance allowing women to wear Islamic headscarves in schools and government offices.

His critics say Erdogan, in pursuit of power, is turning the NATO country that once hoped to join the European Union into an increasingly authoritarian state. They accuse him of curtailing democracy and freedom of speech, of jailing opponents, including students, journalists and activists, especially following a failed military coup in 2016. A state of emergency declared after the coup attempt has led to the arrests of some 50,000 and seen more than 110,000 dismissed from government jobs.

"Erdogan is the man to deliver," Erdogan's adviser Ilnur Cevik told The Associated Press in an interview, countering accusations that Erdogan is in pursuit of greater powers.

"Erdogan does not have absolute power he has the affection of the people..."

The allied opposition which includes the center-left and pro-secular Republican Peoples' Party, the center-right Good Party and the small Islamic Felicity Party has vowed to roll back Erdogan's presidential system and to improve relations with allies and the European Union. Also challenging Erdogan is the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, whose charismatic leader is running for president from jail.

Erdogan's AKP has formed an alliance with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party. Already in control of a majority of Turkey's media, Erdogan's government has changed electoral rules, raising fears that the elections may not be fair. The changes allow government officials to control ballot stations, for ballot stations to be moved to new locations on security grounds and for ballot papers lacking an official stamp to be counted as valid.

Ismail Buyukcakar, who played soccer alongside Erdogan in the early 1970s in Istanbul's Camialti team, recalls a young man who had leadership qualities and oozed confidence.

"He is a good fortune for Turkey. We need to take advantage of this good fortune," Buyukcakar said. "In my opinion, Turkey needs our president for another 20 years."

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Associated Press reporters Ayse Wieting and Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul.

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In 15 years of Recep Tayyip Erdogan governments, Turkish markets have mostly relished the last month leading up to elections. This time, its different.

Ever since 2002, when the Turkish presidents Ak Party first came to power, at least one asset class -- be it the lira or stocks -- has rallied in the run-up to impending votes. In the month leading up to snap elections on June 24, the lira has depreciated 3.6 percent against the dollar, despite the central banks emergency efforts to help stem the currencys decline.

The Borsa Istanbul 100 Index has dropped about 7 percent even as valuations tumbled to nine-year lows, and the yield on 10-year bonds has surged more than 160 basis points.

Turkish markets show their worst pre-election performances of Ak Party era

Irrespective of what the political outcome is this weekend, the economic outlook in Turkey cannot be favorable in any scenario, Julian Rimmer, a London-based trader at Investec Bank Plc, said by email. Turkey is faced with a Hobsons Choice of either the continuation of destructively unsustainable Erdonomics or a new government and/or president obliged to take some bitter corrective medicine with much lower growth.

Emerging market inflows and accommodative monetary policies globally, which gave Turkey a free pass throughout the last cycle, are no longer operative, Rimmer said.

Part of the reason Turkish assets typically gained ahead of elections in the past can be attributed to pre-ballot polls showing the Ak poised for landslide victories, with the party and Erdogan depicted as bastions of stability for the economy and markets.

On this occasion, investors would like to see progress on economic reforms before making strategic investment decisions, said Piotr Matys, an emerging market strategist at Rabobank in London. The role of the central bank after the vote will be absolutely crucial.

A little over a month before the elections, Erdogan said he intended to tighten his grip on monetary policy, comments that sent the lira into a downward spiral, tumbling to a record-low against the dollar. He doubled down this week by urging his supporters to give him another five-year term in Sundays election so he can lower interest rates.

The ballot takes place amid heightening investor fears of an economic slowdown. While Turkeys economy grew 7.4 percent last year and in the first quarter of this year, the expansion came at the expense of one of the widest current-account deficits among G-20 nations and a double-digit inflation rate.

In May, S&P Global Ratings cut Turkeys credit rating deeper into junk saying there is a risk of a hard landing for Turkeys overheating, credit-fueled economy. In June, Moodys said the nations rating could be cut due to the uncertainty regarding the direction of countrys macroeconomic policy and said recent erosion in investor confidence will continue if not addressed through policy actions following the vote.

Assuming Erdogan is re-elected, hell be governing for at least another five years; so, perhaps during the first half of his presidency, hell have less incentive to keep stimulating the economy as hes been doing for the last two years, Matys said. If thats the case, the economy may rebalance and inflation may fall, which would be an encouraging signal for investors. But there are still massive question marks.

With assistance by Inci Ozbek, and Paul Wallace

(Updates asset prices throughout.)

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ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkeys Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has spent the last few weeks talking himself out of a job.

Presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday will trigger the switch to a powerful executive presidency and the abolition of the post of prime minister, unseating Yildirim two years after his promotion by President Tayyip Erdogan.

The presidents staunch ally, 62, shrugged off the prospect of stepping down as he flew across Turkey on a schedule of daily election rallies, adopting a philosophical stance.

These titles are meaningful for a certain period of time. After that, you are an ordinary person and life goes on. You will only live whatever is in your destiny, he told Reuters on board a flight to a rally in southeast Turkey.

His destiny has been entwined with Erdogan since the 1990s when Yildirim, educated in shipbuilding and marine sciences, was in charge of a high-speed ferry company in Istanbul at a time when Erdogan was mayor of Turkeys largest city.

Yildirim, from Erzincan in eastern Turkey, was a founding member of Erdogans ruling AK Party and took the mantle of prime minister in May 2016, replacing Ahmet Davutoglu who stepped down following weeks of public tension with Erdogan.

Since then, much of his work has focused on paving the way for the constitutional transition to a presidential system, narrowly approved in a referendum last year - a task which Yildirim described as his most important accomplishment.

Now that I have kept my promise, I am at peace, he said.

If elected as widely expected, Erdogan will return to the presidency with new sweeping executive powers, able to form a cabinet, dissolve parliament and declare a state of emergency.

The elections had been scheduled for November 2019 but Erdogan brought them forward to June 24, saying the switch was needed to tackle economic and security challenges rapidly. It was a decision that Yildirim loyally supported.

Elected as a deputy for Istanbul in 2002 when the AKP won its first election, Yildirim then served as transport minister for more than a decade, presiding over major infrastructure projects widely viewed as key to the AKPs electoral successes.

As prime minister Yildirim has often adopted a folksy style in his speeches, at times glum, at times injecting humor as he reaches out to voters. Surrounded by loyal AK Party supporters on the latest campaign trail, he has been filmed baking traditional Turkish pide bread and serving customers at an ice-cream stall.

Yildirim looks set to remain in politics. He is running in Sundays parliamentary election as an AKP candidate in the western coastal province of Izmir, where he campaigned unsuccessfully to be mayor in 2014.

Whatever the outcome of the elections, Yildirims close relationship with Erdogan looks set to continue.

We will continue to work together no matter what our titles are, Yildirim said.

Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Daren Butler and Peter Graff

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Erdogan loyalist Yildirim: happy to become Turkey's last ...

Zekine Trkeri, Marga Zambrana and Austin Davis, Special to USA TODAY Published 12:28 p.m. ET June 16, 2018 | Updated 2:40 p.m. ET June 16, 2018

Turkish citizens living abroad vote as they arrive the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, Turkey, June12, 2018. Turkish President Erdogan announced that Turkey will hold snap elections on 24 June 2018. (Photo: ERDEM SAHIN, EPA-EFE)

ISTANBUL Turkish voters head to the polls June 24 to decide whether to give PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan even more control, in what is being called his biggest power grab yet.

Though manysaid they would vote against Erdogan amid his repression of civil rights, an ailing economy and hostile foreign policy moves,few believe their president will lose his job.

"You cannot stop a tsunami, and you cannot stop Erdogan either after he has gathered so much power he is devastating the country like a tsunami," said mer Yilmaz, an unemployed 25-year-old from Istanbul. "He wont leave power even if he loses. He will do anything and everything to win."

Erdogan called the elections 18 months ahead of schedule, after saying the country needed a stronger executive. Under a referendum that passed narrowly last year, his office gains sweeping new powers after this election, including the abolition of the post of prime minister and allowing the president to issue decrees and appoint judges. Before the referendum, the Turkish presidency was aceremonial office.

But Erdogan arguably has already taken control of Turkey. The former prime minister and Istanbul mayor now runs the country under a state of emergency declared in July 2016 after a failed coup. Since then, the president has jaileddissenters and journalists and silencedpolitical opponents.

Many citizens have grown tired of Erdogan's strongman tactics. Erdogan likely won't muster the 51%of votes needed to skip a runoff election for the presidency, said Ilter Turan, a professor of political science at Istanbul Bilgi University. His rivals might then have a chance to line up behind an alternative.

A unified opposition coalition also has a good chance of winning back parliament, creating a potential check on Erdogans power, Turan said.

"The opposition is very energized, unlike earlier when they thought it was a foregone conclusion that Erdogan would win and were demoralized," he said.

One of the most electrifying factors has been inflation and unemployment in the Turkish economy, developmentshurting his nationalist base.

"I studied business administration. I speak (foreign) languages but I cannot find a decent job., Yilmaz said.

In what used to be one of the Middle East's more secular nations, many other Turks want to pivot away from theconservative Islamic ideals the president has used to rally support. Erdogan has promoted the construction of mosques and madrassahs or Islamic schools loosened rules that barred women from wearing headscarves in public sector jobs and restricted alcohol advertisements.

Nilgun Yilmaz, a 56-year-old female accountant, will vote in the June 24th elections for the social democratic CHP Party leader Muharrem Ince. She says she doesn't like Erdogan's government and with her vote hope to keeps the secular Republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatrk in 1923.(Photo: SEVGI KO, ARA NETWORK INC. FOR USA TODAY)

"Freedom of expression is at rock bottom," said Nilgun Yilmaz, 56, an accountant in Istanbul. "If you criticize, you are fired, you are put into prison. There is only freedom to praise Erdogan."

"I want to recover the secular system," she added. "There is also too much tension going on among the people, and that is unsustainable."

Erdogan has also criticized Western leaders, clashed with U.S.-allied Kurds and sought to improve relationships with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian leaders who areinvested in Turkey's war-torn neighbor, Syria. Relations with the United Statesare strained over Syria and over the U.S.-based Turkish cleric, Fethullah Glen, whom Erodgan blames for the attempted coup.

"Turkey is now considered an authoritarian state as opposed to a democracy," Turan said. "I think if the government changes, there would be a restoration of democratic politics."

Democratic changes could help repair relations with the European Union and the U.S., Turan added. Turkey historically has been opposed to Russian and Iranian meddling in the regionand is also a key NATO ally.

Saliha Coskun, a 46-year-old housewife who wears a headscarf as a conservative woman, walks through Istiklal Avenue with her husband and baby. She plans to vote for President Erdogan's AKP Party in the June 24th elections.(Photo: SEVGI KO/ARA NETWORK INC FOR USA TODAY)

But Erdogan's supporters imagine no such scenarioin which the president will be ousted from office.

"Our president has done so many good things for the country that I cannot even think to vote for someone else," said Saliha Coskun, 46, a housewife."If he leavesI don't even want to think we will lose all we have won. God willing, he will win again."

Given the way that Erdogan dominates state-controlled media and other political institutions, many of the presidents opponents seem to think similarly.

"It is hard to digest for me, but I think under these conditions, Tayyip Erdoan will win again," said Saim Levent, 26, a waiter. "He has created a machine that does not allow any other option. Everything is in his hands, under his control."

Davis reported from Berlin

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Turkey elections: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's biggest ...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a mega-rally for his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul on Sunday, one week before the country's general election.

Erdogan was hoping to stay ahead of the curve after coming up against more opposition than he bargained for during the campaign.

"Are you in for a strong Turkey on June 24? Will you make history on June 24?" Erdogan asked the crowd of tens of thousands, who answered "yes" in unison and chanted his name.

Although Turkey was not due to hold a vote until November 2019, the government called for early elections in April. Many observers have suggested that this was part of Erdogan's tactic to create a stronger executive presidency in Turkey, and give the opposition less time to mount a substantial challenge.

However, rival Muharrem Ince of the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) has managed to give Erdogan a run for his money with his dynamism and charisma. Although Erdogan is still the favorite to win next week's election, he faces what will likely be his toughest challenge at the ballot box yet and it may well lead to a run-off vote.

Erdogan refuses TV debate

Earlier on Sunday, Turkey's Hurriyet daily reported that Erdogan had refused an offer from Ince to participate in a live TV debate. Erdogan cited Ince's criticism ofsome planned "mega projects" of Erdogan's as grounds for denying the request.

Erdogan has said he would like to see a third bridge across the Bosporus and a canal in Istanbul to ease traffic, but Ince has said the projects were full of hidden expenses and would come at a cost totaxpayers.

Both Erdogan and Ince have been holding multiple rallies daily in the run-up to the election in a last-ditch attempt to sway voters.

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