Around 60.7 million people are called to vote in the parliamentary and presidential elections in Turkey in just over a month. In addition, around 3.4 million people abroad are allowed to cast their votes, as the head of the electoral authority YSK, Ahmet Yener, announced on Monday. Elections in Turkey will take place on May 14th. Turks abroad can vote from Thursday next week.
Young people could play an important role this time. Around five million first-time voters in Turkey are called to vote, said Yener. That is almost twice as much as in Germany for the 2021 federal election with a comparable total number of eligible voters.
More than 50,000 earthquake victims
The authority intends to announce details of how the elections will be held in the regions affected by the earthquake at a later date. Two severe earthquakes hit south-east Turkey on February 6th. More than 50,000 people lost their lives and millions are homeless.
According to official figures, around 3.7 million people have left the region. According to the electoral authority, only around 133,000 people in other provinces have registered to vote so far. How many voters plan to return to their home regions to vote is unclear. (dpa)
