[2] Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.

[7][8][9][10] While praising the authorities for safeguarding the right to assembly as well as the peaceful electoral conduct, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) voiced concerns over the unequal distribution of campaign resources and media intimidation.

[11][12] The historic 12-year low turnout of 74.13%, attributed to the fact that the election was held in summer while many citizens were on holiday, was seen by many politicians such as MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli as a significant factor in affecting the outcome.

The AK Party began collecting signatures for an unnamed candidate from all 311 eligible MPs out of their 312-seat total, with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan being the only MP to not sign.

Only 536 seats out of the 550 are occupied, with many vacant MPs having resigned or serving prison sentences due to their roles in the PKK, or the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon coup trials.

[103] The campaigns of all three candidates centred mainly on the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, the peace process with PKK rebels, the Gezi Park protests and 17 December 2013 government corruption scandal.

[106] A tweet from the finance minister, Mehmet Şimşek, which claimed that the logo has Arabic calligraphy of the Prophet Muhammad's name also sparked debate over the use of religion in the political campaign.

On 11 July, Erdoğan unveiled a new campaign song and slogan, "Yeni Türkiye Yolunda Demokrasi, Refah, İtibar" (Democracy, Prosperity and Prestige on the Road to a New Turkey).

[108] Erdoğan's campaign has been dominated by electoral rallies, beginning in Samsun on 5 July and then moving to Erzurum, mimicking Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's route which he took at the start of the Turkish War of Independence.

[109] His rally speeches mainly centred on his achievements as Prime Minister and also contained frequent attacks on both the opposition as well as Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the Hizmet Movement living in Pennsylvania.

[112] During his electoral rally in Van, Erdoğan attacked his rival Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu for allegedly mistaking the Independence March, the Turkish national anthem, for a poem composed for the fallen soldiers at Çanakkale during the Gallipoli Campaign.

[113] In addition to his electoral rallies, AKP activists have also launched a door-to-door operation in order to gather support by delivering food, clothing and other items to families.

[123][124] Controversy arose over the allegations that İhsanoğlu had been a potential AKP candidate in the 2007 presidential election if Abdullah Gül was unable to win parliamentary approval.

İhsanoğlu states that because he is not the candidate of a single party, he would be able to solve national tensions between the opposition and government as well as bring about peace and stability to both Turkey and to the world through foreign policy.

In a speech lasting just under an hour, he proposed that the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) should be disbanded, that compulsory religion lessons in schools should be removed and that Cemevis (the Alevi houses of worship) should receive national recognition.

He continued to direct applause to the mother of the murdered teenager Berkin Elvan, who died 269 days after being hit by a tear gas canister during the protests and falling into a coma.

[151] In a press statement, Tanal also attributed the case to the alleged incompatibility of Erdoğan's ideologies and the history of his premiership to the office of the presidency and referred to the 2008 judicial verdict which curbed the AKP's state funding due to the "violations of democratic and secular principles.

[154] In a report released by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on 31 July, Erdoğan was criticised for the alleged use of public funds to finance his campaign.

[156] Both the rival candidates and the OSCE have called for greater transparency regarding the financing of Erdoğan's campaign, and the latter has decided to send a delegation to monitor the elections on 10 August.

[159] Following the accusations, a CHP MP from Istanbul, Umut Oran, brought claims of the misuse of public resources before the Supreme Electoral Council and requested an audit into donations to Erdoğan's campaign.

[161] On 6 August, it emerged that the Ministry of National Education (MEB) had printed an exam revision guide which included Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the list of Turkish presidents four days before the election took place.

[171][172] The Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) repeated its highly controversial decision which it initially took in the local elections to print a substantial amount of ballot papers more than necessary, totalling 75,708,180.

[175] The YSK president Sadi Güven also stated that the uncertainty of how many people would vote at customs gates was also a factor behind the decision to send a disproportionately large number of ballot papers to national borders.

[177] Presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu raised concern over the high number of spare ballot papers, stating that "of course some might go to waste in rain, mud or a flood, but what does printing 18 million mean?

[107] On 5 August, the Supreme Electoral Council banned an Erdoğan campaign advertisement on the grounds that it "abused religious feelings by depicting the Azan, a prayer mat and a woman performing Namaz.

The voting intentions of the candidates' provinces of origin are considered electorally significant in Turkish politics, yet Rize, Yozgat and Elazığ were all won by Erdoğan.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by virtue of winning more than half of the vote, was formally inaugurated as the 12th President of Turkey and took over from Abdullah Gül in a handover ceremony on 28 August 2014.

[241] Previously on 21 August, a 3-hour AKP Central Executive Committee meeting chaired by Erdoğan formally nominated former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for the party leadership.

In his speech, he thanked his supporters for their help during his campaign and stated that the only losers of the election was "dirty politics" and stressed the need to leave hatred and rivalries in the "old Turkey."

[251][252] The election loss for the CHP resulted in many MPs such as Emine Ülker Tarhan, Muharrem İnce and Süheyl Batum losing confidence in the leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.