Nearly 5 million young people are expected to take part in Türkiye’s merged presidential and parliamentary elections, which are currently 27 days away, Supreme Election Council (YSK) chief Ahmet Yener announced Monday.

Some 4,904,672 voters will be heading to polls for the first time on May 14 to elect Türkiye’s 13th president and all 600 lawmakers for Parliament, barely three months after what is now described as the biggest disaster in the country’s modern history that left over 50,000 people dead across 11 southeastern provinces, Yener told reporters in Ankara.

A total of 277,646 Turkish citizens living abroad are also set to become first-time voters next month, according to Yener.

Should the presidential vote stretch into a runoff on May 28, some 47,523 more citizens will become first-time voters, besides 2,435 Turks abroad, Yener said.

It pushes the total to 64,113,941 people who will be eligible to vote both at home and abroad, with 60,697,843 residing in Türkiye.

Nearly half of these, 29,987,053 people corresponding to 49.40%, are male voters while the remaining 50.60% of them are female voters, topping 30,710,790 people, the YSK chief added.

Moreover, 989,54 people with visual impairments and orthopedic disabilities, as well as 3,180,802 senior citizens over 75, will be voting this year.

Quake zone voters

Yener further informed that during the period when the board announced voter registry lists across the country late last month, lists showed that nearly 600,000 people in earthquake-stricken provinces relocated to new locations and cities from districts they used to vote from. The displaced citizens had until April 2 to register their new addresses to cast a ballot.

"If the presidential vote goes into a runoff, the numbers are befitting legal regulations," Yener assured, adding that a YSK delegation would head to Şanlıurfa and Adıyaman provinces, both heavily damaged in the tremors, next week for final arrangements.

Another YSK delegation will be visiting Malatya and Elazığ provinces this weekend to supervise the progress in post-earthquake recovery efforts and determine the current situation, according to Yener.

The destruction on Feb. 6 buried many election materials like ballot boxes and voting seals, as well as buildings used for voting, under the rubble.

Reports in late March showed that some 3 million people displaced by the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes were lagging in updating their addresses and most of them remained stoic toward the upcoming vote.

While up to 1.2 million survivors who fled to other cities in the aftermath began going back to the region to temporary shelters, at least 1 million people currently living in the disaster zone are expected not to vote, hinting at a possible weak turnout from the affected region.

This widespread reluctance comes in contrast to previous predictions from experts that the historic election could garner a record turnout.

Debates had surfaced after the disaster struck about a possible postponement, but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan adhered to the previously announced date when he renewed the elections, saying: "It’s a must for our country to put this election agenda behind us to recover from and eliminate all traces of the earthquakes, and to boost production and employment."

The board also did not change the number of lawmakers per constituency in disaster-hit provinces. The number of lawmakers is usually based on the size of the population. The bigger the population is the more candidates are eligible to be elected.

Voting stations

On the topic of potentially reprinting ballots, Yener said that the figures in the tender for this job are not exaggerated.

As for recent rumors about "an excess of voting ballots" for May 14, Yener assured: "We have begun sharing our lists and ballot box information with all political parties attending the elections."

He said the ballots are currently being shipped to villages, towns and overseas offices in packs of 390, 410 and 720.

"In case the combined ballots are harmed due to unforeseen reasons, every election bureau in Türkiye is receiving five additional packs of ballots while overseas offices are receiving one extra pack as per new regulations," Yener said, noting that officials report back to the YSK on whether the ballots are used or not.

"The signatures of the political parties’ representatives watching the boxes are also required in line with the regulations," Yener said.

The board will set up 191,884 ballot boxes in 1,094 election councils in 973 districts for May 14. Mobile voting stations will tour 421 districts countrywide, allowing some 6,215 citizens to cast their votes.

A total of 53,172 prisoners arrested for negligent offenses are eligible to vote, as well, according to Yener.

Türkiye has installed 4,671 ballot boxes at customs gates and established a total of 5,040 boxes for 3,416,098 Turks living abroad who are eligible to vote, he added.

"Of these 1,595,158 are women, corresponding to 46.70% of voters as opposed to 1,820,940 male voters making up 53.30%," Yener informed.

Voting for Turks abroad will begin at border crossings and electoral venues on April 27 and will end on May 9. In case of a run-off, Turkish citizens abroad can vote between May 20 and 24.

Competitors

The YSK will be announcing the parties’ final parliamentary candidate lists this week on Wednesday.

Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has opted to introduce new names to its seats in Parliament by removing some 196 existing deputies in its final lists, as well as nominating ministers from past terms, standing mayors, provincial chairs, current prominent members serving as top ministers.

While the AK Party’s People’s Alliance partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is endorsing Erdoğan for the top office, the two parties will be running separate candidates in the parliamentary vote. The AK Party is also nominating deputy candidates from its new partner Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR) under its own logo.

Erdoğan’s campaign is honed in on earthquake recovery and an ambitious set of economic and social goals for what he calls the "Century of Türkiye" vision that celebrates the second century of Türkiye’s being a republic.

Meanwhile, the six-party opposition alliance, rallying behind Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential candidacy, has discarded many CHP devotees and admitted deputy candidates from its four smaller partners.

On May 14, voters will receive two ballots, one for presidential and one for parliamentary candidates, and a draw by the YSK placed the People’s Alliance on the eighth and the Nation Alliance in the 18th slot.