Turks living abroad begin to cast ballots

ANKARA

The voting process to decide the next Turkish president and the parliamentary seats began for around 3.4 million Turks living abroad on April 27.

Turkish citizens can cast their votes without needing to book an appointment until May 9 at designated election bureaus and May 14 at border gates on 156 points across 73 countries, the Supreme Election Council (YSK) said.

Some 3,416,098 Turkish citizens living abroad are eligible to vote for the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14 at home, 277,646 of whom are first-time voters.

Foreign representative offices will serve Turkish expats between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the local time on weekdays and weekends and between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. in local time in cities affiliated with the consulate generals.

In the event that the presidential election goes to the second round, citizens will cast votes between May 20 and 24 at the designated offices.

The YSK has placed 4,671 polling stations on 46 border gates, on the other hand. In the event of a possible runoff, the voting process at customs will continue until 5 p.m. on May 28.

Germany, housing the most significant Turkish diaspora, also has the highest number of voters, with more than 1.5 million people eligible to vote, the YSK revealed. Turks living in Germany are able to cast votes in 26 different representative offices.

Germany is followed by France and the Netherlands, where 397,086 and 286,753 voters live, respectively.

The YSK carried ballot boxes to Belarus, Brazil, Estonia, Morocco, Montenegro, the Republic of Korea, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Slovakia and Tanzania for the first time in the country’s history. The council, meanwhile, canceled the ballot box to be established in Sudan due to the escalating conflicts in the North African country.

After the voting process abroad completes, the votes will be brought to Türkiye by “diplomatic couriers” under high security, the council said, adding that the ballot boxes brought from abroad will be opened together with the others at home.