Türkiye elects president

REGION  28 May 2023 - 09:49

The second round of voting in Türkiye's presidential election began on May 28 for the first time in the Republic's history.

Polling stations opened at 08:00 and will close at 17:00 local time, Caliber.Az reports.

More than 191,000 ballot boxes have been set up across the country. The number of voters exceeds 60 million.

In the first round of voting on May 14, none of the candidates won 50 per cent of the votes, with incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (49.52 per cent of the votes) and Union of the Nation candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People's Party (44.88 per cent) winning the right to advance to the second round.

Presidential candidate from the “ATA Alliance” faction Sinan Ogan, who won 5.17 per cent of the votes in the May 14 vote, called on supporters to support Erdogan's candidacy in the second round.

The counting of votes will begin after the polls close at 5:00 p.m. local time.

For voters who cannot go to the polls for health reasons, "mobile ballot boxes" will operate.

In addition, as in the May 14 election, citizens with visual impairments will be able to vote using a specially prepared template.

Voting for Turkish citizens living abroad ended on May 24. A total of 3.5 million voters cast their ballots in 73 countries and at checkpoints.

Ballot boxes from abroad were delivered to Ankara by air and diplomatic pouch. They will be opened on Sunday evening, along with other ballot boxes after voting ends.

The ban on broadcasting the election results will remain in effect until 21:00 on May 28. At the discretion of the CEC, the ban can be lifted earlier than the legal deadline.

Caliber.Az