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ISTANBUL – With only weeks left before Turkey's first-ever direct presidential election a recent survey published by polling company Optimar predicted that Justice and Development Party (AK Party) presidential candidate and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be elected president in the first round on Aug. 10 with 53.8 percent of the vote while Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) joint presidential candidate and former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), will receive 38.4 percent of the vote. Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtaş, who is a popular political figure among Kurds, is expected to lag far behind with 7.8 percent.