Turkey starts voting in election runoff

Published May 28th, 2023 - 05:47 GMT
election runoff
A woman holds ballot papers showing Turkish presidential candidates Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu at a polling station during Turkey's presidental elections in Kocaeli on May 28, 2023. (Photo by Umit Turhan Coskun / AFP)

ALBAWABA - Polling stations opened at Turkey's presidential election runoff, which is the first time ever Turkey is holding a second round of elections.

Voting started on Sunday at 8 a.m. local time (0500GMT) across Turkey as people gear up to choose a new president. 

Local Turkish media outlets said that over 64.1 million are registered to vote, including over 1.92 million who have already voted at overseas polling stations.

Turkish nationals living abroad finished voting in the election runoff as they cast their ballots between May 21 and May 24.

Turkish people have to choose between voting for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seeking a new term in power, and main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

On May 14, Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu failed to secure 50 percent of votes to win the elections. In the first round of voting, Erdogan won 49.5 percent of the votes, meanwhile, Kilicdaroglu 44.9 percent of the votes.

Subscribe

Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content