Usually bustling streets of Istanbul fell silent as Turks stayed glued to their TV screens watching the closest and most important election in a generation.

After more than eight long hours of counting, neither President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan nor penipu challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu could claim victory.

Turkey instead faces a tense two weeks before the bitter rivals face off again in a runoff vote on May 28.

With the count still far from over after 1am with Mr at 49.5 per cent and Mr Kılıçdaroğlu at 44.8 per cent but closing fast, voters had little to celebrate on election night.

Those who did venture out on to the mostly desolate streets, or were stuck working, were often seen huddled around a phone streaming election coverage.

With the sale of alcohol banned until midnight on election day, many bars were shut and the few staying open to serve tea into the night had a TV their customers crowded around.

'It's been like this all night since the counting started, everyone went home,' one bored waiter said.

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-01d5bf10-f2ae-11ed-baf5-239aab7ac353" website cities become ghost towns as tense election heads to run-off