Early voting at diplomatic missions has come to an end on Wednesday, four days before Türkiye’s runoff presidential election.
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While Türkiye’s more than 60 million eligible domestic voters will be heading to the polls again on Sunday, its 3.4 million voters living abroad began casting their early votes at diplomatic missions in over 70 countries starting May 20.
On Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reported that over 1.5 million people had already cast their ballots at diplomatic missions one day before the polls closed.
Even though polls closed at diplomatic missions on Wednesday, Turks living abroad can still cast their votes upon arrival or departure at points of entry until the evening of election day.
Nearly 56 million voters cast their ballots in Türkiye’s general elections on May 14, marking an increase in voter turnout compared to the previous parliamentary elections in 2018.
Türkiye is known to have one of the highest voter turnout rates in the world. Here’s a look �� pic.twitter.com/H4tpC57prl
— TRT World (@trtworld)
May 23, 2023
The second-round runoff was scheduled after none of the candidates secured the majority needed for an outright victory during the first round in May
In the first round, incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had earned 49.52 percent of the vote while his main challenger, opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, received 44.88 percent. Meanwhile, a third candidate, nationalist politician Sinan Ogan, gained 5.17 percent.
On May 14, the electoral authorities registered 53.9 million votes, of which 1.1 million were invalid votes. Citizen participation reached 88.92 in the first round.
Regarding voting abroad, the authorities registered 1.3 million votes, which implied a participation of 49.4 percent of the Turkish expats authorized to go to the polls.
#FromTheSouth News Bits |#Türkiye‘s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reaffirmed that one of the main tasks if he wins the second round of the presidential elections, will be the development of a new constitution. pic.twitter.com/XMfAjFBdsN
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish)
May 24, 2023