Ankara - Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) looks set to sweep local elections on Sunday which are seen as a barometer of the strength of national political parties.

While polls vary, the AKP is once again set to win a plurality of votes in the balloting for mayors and municipal assembly members across Turkey's 81 provinces.

A poll released this week by the A&G research company put the national vote of the AKP at 39.1 per cent, well ahead of the main opposition Republican People's Party
(CHP) with 26.8 per cent.

A poll conducted by Konda research company found a similar gap between the two parties but put the AKP vote on 48.9 per cent, compared to the CHP's 33.1 per cent. The Konda poll put the strength of Turkey's third main party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) at 10.5 per cent.

Under Turkey's highly centralised political system the elections are seen as a test of national leaders. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is at the forefront of the AKP's election campaign. In the last six weeks of campaigning Erdogan has almost on a daily basis addressed rallies across the country.

Other party leaders have also turned the election into a test of national strength, with news reports giving almost all coverage to the leaders rather than the candidates actually running.

Campaigning in the elections came to a premature halt on Thursday after news that a helicopter carrying Muhsin Yazicioglu, leader of the Islamist far right Grand Unity Party
(BBP), had crashed Wednesday afternoon in the central Anatolian province of Kahramanmaras.

All leaders called off planned rallies as thousands of rescue workers scoured snow-capped mountains in search of the helicopter. It wasn't until Friday afternoon, 48 hours after news of the crash, that search and rescue teams reached the crash site.

All parties are hoping to at least maintain the vote levels they received in the 2007 general election, where the AKP won 46.6 per cent compared to 20.9 per cent for the CHP and 14.3 per cent for the MHP.

The main topics on the campaign agenda have been the state of the economy, rising unemployment and infrastructure issues, leaving to the background the biggest issue of recent years - opposition allegations that the AKP has watered down strict secular laws in an attempt to introduce sharia (Islamic) law.

The latest polling suggests that the AKP is expected to hold onto control in Ankara and Istanbul, while the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) should hold onto Diyarbakir. (dpa)