Voting deadlines extended again in US, UK

ANKARA

The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has accepted the objections of the ruling Justice and Development Party and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to shortening the time period during which Turkish voters in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and Australia will vote for the second round.

The criticism came after the Turkish embassy in Washington announced that expatriates will only be able to vote for the Turkish presidential election’s second round on May 20 and 21, though the previous schedule outlined the process until May 24.

CHP deputy chairs Muharrem Erkek and Bülent Tezcan appealed to the election board to extend the voting time in foreign representation offices for the second round of the election scheduled for May 28 at home, claiming that the reason behind the move was that Nation Alliance’s candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received high votes in these countries.

The CHP leader received 86 percent of the vote in Ireland, 80 percent in the U.S. and Canada, 79 percent in the U.K. and 54 percent in Australia in the first round.

The YSK has extended the voting period in these countries back to the date on the original calendar.

For his part, Recep Özel, AKP’s representative to the YSK, also appealed to the board with a request to increase the number of ballot boxes abroad.

Meanwhile, in its application to the YSK, the Foreign Ministry’s election coordination center requested that the daily voting period, which ends at 11 p.m., be readjusted as the first round witnessed some security problems during late hours. The board accepted the request and set the deadline as 10 p.m.

The YSK has also placed 4,671 polling stations at 46 border gates, where the voting for the runoff will continue until 5 p.m. on May 28.

More than 1.8 million citizens cast their votes at Türkiye’s overseas representations and customs for the May 14 elections, which indicates a participation rate of 52.6 percent.