The stakes in Sunday's vote are high here: the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which enjoys solid popularity among the Kurds, is keen to prove it is winning over the restive minority and the Democratic Society Party (DTP) equally keen to assert Kurdish demands for broader freedoms.

In Diyarbakir, an impoverished city long plagued by armed conflict and rights abuses, Ankara's reform drive is visible: Kurdish music blares from electioneering vans, billboards display posters in Kurdish and locals enjoy 24-hour programmes in their language on state television.

The change is welcome, but many question Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's pledges of reconciliation, pointing at some lingering restrictions on using Kurdish, heavy-handed clampdowns on street protests and the slow pace of measures to reduce rampant unemployment.

"We don't think the prime minister is sincere," says Nedim Arikboga, 31, outside his tea shop in downtown Diyarbakir, where jobless men idle.

The government's zigzagging on reform and ongoing clashes between the army and the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara, breed a sense of insecurity about the future and keep alive the memories of a bloody past.

"Whatever they say, the state always abandons us in the end... The election is not a matter of services for me -- it's a struggle to defend my identity," says Arikboga, who lost four cousins and an uncle to the Kurdish conflict in the 1990s.

Contractor Nurettin Gureli says Kurdish disillusionment with Erdogan lies in his tough stance against the PKK, namely his reluctance to consider an amnesty for the rebels, widely seen here as the critical move that would end the 24-year insurgency.

The DTP, which Ankara accuses of being a PKK instrument, has put a strong nationalist emphasis on its campaign, with leaders describing the elections as a "census" or a "referendum" on who is a Kurd and who is not.

Supporters of Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AKP complain they are being portrayed as "betrayers" and some say they refrain from disclosing their vote.

DTP activists "came to me the other day and I had to say I would vote for them," says Ayse, 34, whose family of six in a muddy Diyarbakir slum depends on the irregular earnings of her husband, a construction worker.

"But the AKP is better, isn't it?" she exclaims, telling gladly that the social services agency recently gave the family shopping cheques of 400 Turkish lira (240 dollars, 180 euros), to be followed by a fridge next month.

Such action of social support during election time, seen across Turkey, is widely decried as AKP "bribery" for the vote of the poor.

But many better-off Kurds also back the ruling party, arguing that hardline DTP policies often lead to street violence in Diyarbakir, tarnishing the city's image and scaring off investors.

"A genuine service for the people can be provided only on the basis of reconciliation," says Kutbettin Arzu, a Kurdish lawmaker and the AKP's candidate for Diyarbakir mayor.

Stressing government efforts to improve infrastructure and economic activity in the region, he adds: "When it comes to the issue of freedoms, we have done much as well."

But in his spacious office at the municipality, incumbent mayor Osman Baydemir, one of Turkey's most popular Kurdish politicians, is already contemplating the impact of the crushing victory he expects.

DTP's triumph in Diyarbakir, he believes, would give the government "a fresh motivation" to boost investment and fight poverty in the southeast.

"And not only that. It would help open the doors for dialogue on both sides (the PKK and Ankara) and strengthen the prospect of a democratic solution to the conflict," he says.