A vendor reads a newspaper in Istanbul on Monday, a day after Turkey's general election. Turkey's Justice and Development Party is preparing to head a single-party government with a decisive mandate after a surprising election turnaround that strengthens the hand of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: AFP

Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) is preparing to head a single-party government with a decisive mandate Monday after a surprising election turnaround that strengthens the hand of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The AKP, founded by Erdogan 14 years ago, reclaimed the parliamentary majority it lost just five months ago, confounding opinion polls that had predicted another hung parliament.

Erdogan said the people of Turkey had voted for "stability" after renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels and a wave of bloody jihadist attacks since the last election in June.

Turkish stocks and the lira soared on the results, ending five months of political uncertainty, but many were wary about the future of the troubled country under a more powerful AKP.

"The will of the nation has shown itself in favor of stability," Erdogan told reporters after morning prayers at an Istanbul mosque. He called for Turks to "remain united" and said the entire world should respect the result.

His conservative party won almost half the vote to secure 316 seats in the 550-member parliament, according to final but unofficial results, easily giving the party a chance to form a government on its own.

"The AKP and Erdogan, now secure in their ruling posts, may adopt a unifying and inclusive stance," including reviving the Kurdish peace process, said Inan Demir, chief economist of Istanbul-based Finansbank.

But, he warned, Erdogan and the AKP may conversely see the results as license to press on with their divisive policies, which he says include "insistence on an executive presidency, unrelenting pressure on opposing business and media groups, aggressive foreign policy, a hard-line stance regarding the Kurdish issue and obsessive calls for lower interest rates."

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hailed the result as a "victory for democracy," saying there were "no losers, but winners."

Speaking at the AKP headquarters in Ankara, he vowed to protect the rights of all of Turkey's 78 million people.

AKP supporters honked their horns in celebration, but many Turks greeted the result with dismay, and clashes erupted briefly between police and angry demonstrators in Diyarbakir, Turkey's main Kurdish city.

The AKP lost its majority for the first time in 13 years in June, when the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party entered parliament for the first time.

The political landscape has changed dramatically since then, with the country becoming even more divided along ethnic, religious and political lines.

Analysts said it appeared that voters had turned away from nationalist and Kurdish parties after a surge in violence between Turkish forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party in July led to the collapse of a fragile 2013 truce.