Turks go to polls to elect a president and parliamentarians

Turks will go to the polls today to elect a president and parliamentarians after a snap elections were announced in April.

The vote marks the end of the election campaigns that have created a lively atmosphere across the country for more than two months.

Despite the limited time before the election day and that it coincided with the holy month of Ramadan, politicians managed to come up with dynamic schedules that enabled them to reach as many people as possible.

There are 56,322,632 registered voters and 180,065 ballot boxes across the country.

Voting is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. and continue through 5 p.m.

After the voting ends, ballots cast for the presidential candidates will be counted first and for the first time, elections officials will collect ballots from the homes of voters with mobility issues due to old age, poor health or disabilities. Currently 17,000 of such voters exist.

Sunday’s election will see eight political parties aiming to get seats in Parliament: AK Party, CHP, HDP, Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR), İP, MHP, SP and VP.

However, for the first time in Turkish history, political parties will go to elections by forming alliances.

The AK Party and the MHP have formed an alliance named the People’s Alliance, while the CHP, the İP, and the SP have formed the Nation Alliance.

In general elections, a political party must receive 10 percent of votes nationwide for its candidates to win a seat in Parliament.

Now, only the alliance needs to pass the 10 percent threshold for the parties to claim seats in Parliament.

Meanwhile, some 1.49 million expats voted in a 13-day period between June 7 to June 19 at 123 Turkish missions abroad, including the TRNC.

Expat votes have been transported to Turkey and will be counted at the same time as the votes cast domestically on June 24.