Ankara - Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept local elections on Sunday but saw its primary vote fall, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan disappointed at the party losing a number of provinces and failing to win others it had targeted.

With around 99 per cent of the vote counted as of Monday morning, the AKP had registered 39 per cent of the vote, compared to 23.2 per cent for the main opposition Republican People's Party and 16.1 per cent for the Nationalist Movement Party.

The AKP's 39 per cent represents a fall of more than 7 per cent compared to the AKP's result in general elections in 2007.

The AKP held onto Istanbul and the capital Ankara but lost the Mediterranean city of Antalya.

The party also failed to make any impression in provinces it had specifically targeted, including the Aegean Sea city of Izmir, which was easily retained by the CHP, and the mainly Kurdish-populated south-eastern city of Diyarbakir where the pro-Kurdish the Democratic Society Party (DTP) won 65.4 per cent of the vote.

"Our party will look into the results and take them as an indicator of the electors' will, just as we did after earlier elections," Erdogan in the early hours of Monday morning.

While expressing disappointment at losing a number of provinces, Erdogan said the election was still a vote of confidence in his government.

Under Turkey's highly centralised political system the elections are seen as a test of national leaders. Erdogan has been at the forefront of the AKP's election campaign. In the last six weeks of campaigning Erdogan had addressed rallies right across the country almost on a daily basis. (dpa)