Türkiye is preparing to adopt the electronic voting system following next year’s local elections, the Supreme Election Council (YSK) chief Ahmet Yener announced Thursday.

The practice, which is widely used in many countries like the United States, Estonia, Switzerland, Canada and Brazil, is a must for Türkiye, Yener told Turkish daily Hürriyet in his first interview following last month’s landmark presidential and parliamentary polls.

"After one or two elections, we could start implementing electronic voting first at overseas stations since the electorate abroad is much smaller," Yener explained.

The next election in Türkiye is expected to be held in March 2024 to choose mayors and local administrators. In the May elections, a total of 64 million citizens were eligible to vote, including some 3.4 million Turks abroad.

According to Yener, Türkiye is "bound" to make the transition to online voting because the shift would come with "many benefits," including saving economic costs and providing "great ease" to people.

Should Türkiye make the change, authorities would have to base the system on the electronic voting models of countries with similar populations to Türkiye, whose populace is expected to reach 88.4 million by 2030.

"I think it would be best to adopt the model of a country with at least 45-50 million voters, rather than say 2 million," Yener quipped.

"As far as I know, Estonia is quite advanced in electronic voting. We, as the YSK, will be surveying what other countries are doing."

Since Estonia introduced the online voting system in 2005, more Estonians cast their ballot electronically than in-person as the practice proved a standout success compared to the limited success seen in Canada and Switzerland.

Casting a ballot electronically in Estonia can be done from a computer, with eligible voters using an ID card and card reader, as well as PIN codes for security. The system also allows voters to change their minds by voting on election day in person with a physical paper ballot that cancels out the previous online vote.

Yener revealed that YSK authorities previously took steps in 2014 to set up the system by visiting overseas bureaus with party officials but did not follow up further.

Now that Türkiye has local elections coming up, the YSK is thinking of a way to implement this system afterward, he explained.

"We’re thinking how we can establish the necessary infrastructure, whether we would launch a pilot program or switch to electronic voting immediately at the next presidential and parliamentary polls."

The YSK will be holding talks with party representatives at Parliament on aspects that require legislative changes, which would enable the transition in either 2028 or later, Yener informed.

He added that once technical drafts are completed and engineers draw a roadmap, the system itself could also work via e-Government, or e-Devlet in Turkish, Türkiye’s online portal for government services launched in 2008.

The YSK chief further addressed allegations that surfaced concerning the official outcome of the May 14 elections and the May 28 runoff.

"There were claims on social media that votes were stolen and such but above all, people should know the reports are manually signed. If there’s an error in data entry, parties get to object by signing the report and if their objections are sound, the district election council springs into action. If not, the YSK does so," he explained.

"However, there weren’t that many objections after the elections. I still had to wait until the designated period's end to announce the results. Someone accusing the YSK of being unlawful or threatening electoral security would only be right if I hadn’t," he added.

As for the upcoming elections, Yener said the calendar would kick off on Jan.1.

On voters in Türkiye’s 11 southeastern provinces devastated by two deadly earthquakes in February, Yener said the YSK would be starting to assess shortcomings and deficits in the disaster zone in September.

Containers the YSK set up in the quake-stricken cities will be preserved as they are until local elections, Yener noted.

The region overwhelmingly voted for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) during last month’s elections, believing his promise that only his government could revitalize the affected areas.