Voting for the Turkish diaspora’s presidential and parliamentary elections for May 14 commenced on Thursday.
Voters registered in the electoral roll abroad can vote at the Kapıkule, Ipsala, Pazarkule, Hamzabeyli and Dereköy border gates. Overseas ballot box committees comprised a president, a public servant member and personnel appointed by political parties with giant vote shares in the last general election in Türkiye. They took up their respective positions in voting areas at the border gates.
Overseas voting will be open until May 9, while voting at border gates will continue until May 14.
Some 3.41 million people are expected to cast their votes abroad, including nearly 278,000 young first-time voters.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has placed 4,671 polling stations on border gates for these voters. In addition, ballot boxes are set up for the first time in countries like Belarus, Brazil, Estonia, Morocco, Montenegro, the Republic of Korea, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Slovakia and Tanzania.
Over in the United States, home to 134,246 eligible voters, nine representative bureaus are available. Brazil ranks at the bottom of the list regarding the number of eligible Turkish voters, at just 581 people, preceded by Nigeria with 584 voters and Turkmenistan with 635 people. In Austria, six bureaus will host voting stations, while three offices each are set up in Azerbaijan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
Once overseas voting ends, ballots will be brought to Türkiye via diplomatic couriers and methods determined by the YSK under maximum security measures to be kept safe in the capital Ankara. These boxes will be opened at 5 p.m. after voting ends on May 14 across Türkiye. Counting these votes will be done under the supervision of the Directorate of Foreign Provincial Election Council. In the presidential election, votes cast overseas directly add to the total percentage the candidates garner in Türkiye. In the parliamentary election, overseas votes are distributed proportionately to constituencies countrywide according to the number of voters and the ballots parties receive in each province.
On the other side, the casting of ballots also started in Germany, where the largest diaspora of 1.5 million Turks resides. A total of 26 polling stations are open in Germany alone. Germany was criticized in earlier Turkish elections for blocking election rallies by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Recently, Germany’s justice minister urged fellow Cabinet members to take action against planned election rallies by the AK Party in Germany. Marco Buschmann voiced concerns about an “intensive campaign by supporters of the Turkish president” to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a letter reported by the German media. He cited claims of “limits of freedom of expression” being exceeded in the past, noting a speech in Germany by an AK Party lawmaker in Germany’s Neuss. Mustafa Açıkgöz simply reiterated Türkiye’s determination to eradicate terrorist groups, including the PKK and Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), in his speech, referring to both groups’ presence in Germany. Açıkgöz’s statement prompted a crisis between the two countries and was deemed as “hate speech” by officials in Germany, which also recognizes the PKK as a terrorist group. Buschmann called fellow ministers to ensure the enforcement of laws overseeing the assemblies of political groups ahead of Turkish elections and “clearly tell Türkiye” that they would not tolerate exceeding the limits of freedom of expression.
In 2017, Germany amended assembly laws solely to prevent AK Party campaigns in the future. The amendment bans election rallies toward residents of Germany hailing from another country at least three months before the election. Germany joined the Netherlands and Austria in 2018 by prohibiting political rallies by Turkish politicians ahead of a presidential election won by Erdoğan.
Like in Türkiye, the AK Party was victorious in the 2018 presidential elections abroad. Erdoğan garnered more than 59% of the vote abroad, ahead of his rival Muharrem Ince, who won only 25.8%. Most of the votes for both candidates were from Europe, where the AK Party boasts massive support among the Turkish diaspora. In the 2018 elections, Erdoğan received 64% of the votes in Germany, 63% in France, 72% in the Netherlands, 74% in Belgium and 71% in Austria.
In the early hours of Thursday, Turkish expats streamed into polling stations set up at major airports in Türkiye. “I hope it will be a good election, but it will be better if Reis wins,” Ibrahim Şahin, an expat from Algeria told Anadolu Agency (AA) as he cast his vote at the capital Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport. "Reis" is a nickname given to President Erdoğan by his supporters. Tijen Seydioğlu, a Turkish citizen living in Austria, said she was “excited and happy” to be able to cast her vote. At Istanbul Airport, Ferhat Kopuz, who arrived from Sydney, Australia, was the first to cast a ballot. “I came here to visit Istanbul and arrived at six in the morning. I hope the election outcome will benefit Türkiye,” he told Demirören News Agency (DHA). Cemil Kurt, who was visiting Istanbul after arriving from his adopted country Angola, said he wanted to “fulfill his civic duty.”
In this election, Erdoğan faces his toughest test yet in more than two decades, he led his AK Party to victory in successive elections. This time, the opposition is more united and accepted the leadership of Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Kılıçdaroğlu is the only viable candidate against Erdoğan. However, the CHP lost every election under his leadership, as the main opposition bloc comprises political parties with few voters. A poll by survey company Areda conducted with 17,400 people across the country between April 15 and April 20 shows Erdoğan would win 51.4% of the vote. Kılıçdaroğlu garners 41.8% of the vote while he is followed by other candidates, Muharrem Ince and Sinan Oğan, who would win 4.6% and 2.2% of the vote, respectively.
