Majority of Turkish expats endorse Erdoğan’s presidency in election

ANKARA

A considerable majority of Turks who voted abroad endorsed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election on June 24.

As of 22.10 p.m. local time with nearly 30 percent of ballot boxes opened, 59.3 percent of Turkish expats voted for Erdoğan, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) candidate Muharrem İnce garnered 25.5 percent of total expat vote while the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) candidate Selahattin Demirtaş, who has been behind bars since 2016, secured 11 percent of the expat vote. The İYİ (Good) Party’s presidential candidate Meral Akşener got only 3.3 percent of the expat votes.

In Austria, support for Erdoğan was as high as 72.4 percent with 38.7 ballot boxes opened, while 73.6 percent of Turks living in Belgium voted for the incumbent president.

In Germany, where more than 1.4 million eligible Turkish voters live, Erdoğan had garnered 65.4 percent of the vote.

According to state-run Anadolu Agency, the expat turnout rate was 46.1 percent in the presidential election.

As far as the parliamentary election is concerned, data showed that Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) garnered 54.1 percent of the vote with 14.3 percent of ballot boxes opened.

Support among Turks living abroad for the CHP was 18.2 percent, while 8.1 percent of expats voted for the AKP’s alliance partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), led by Devlet Bahçeli. The HDP had garnered 16.4 percent of the vote.

Over 3 million Turks living abroad were eligible to vote for the presidential and general elections and some 1.49 million Turkish expats went to the polls in 60 countries between June 7 and June 19.