2 years ago

Turkish presidential runoff sees higher turnout among overseas voters

Turkish diaspora shows up in higher numbers for the Turkish presidential runoff, voting in embassies, missions and at customs gates to decide who will lead the country for the next five years.

AA

Türkiye is going to a runoff election to determine its next president. The race is between incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu / Photo: AA

Turkish expats turned up in higher numbers for the Turkish presidential election runoff. They cast their votes at overseas missions and customs gates, outpacing the first round of the polls.

Voting at diplomatic missions ended on May 24, while the process will continue at customs gates until 5 PM local time on May 28.

According to the Supreme Election Council (YSK), as many as 1,889,398 Turkish nationals (over 1.839 million) cast their votes at the country's foreign missions and customs gates as of 11 PM yesterday.

A total of 1,839,470 people voted at diplomatic missions and customs gates in the first round of the elections on May 14. There is an increase of 50.000 people so far.

How important is the Turkish diaspora in upcoming elections?

Those who are unable to cast their ballots within the specified time in their country of residence will be able to vote at the customs gates until 5 PM on Sunday.

For the first round of elections, Turkish nationals abroad cast their votes at Türkiye's foreign representative offices between April 27 and May 9, and at the customs gates until May 14.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's People's Alliance won a majority in parliament, while the presidential race headed to the second round as no candidate obtained simple majority, or more than 50 percent of the votes. Erdogan, however, was leading with 49.52 percent.

He will face Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in the runoff vote.