Over 1.1 Million Voters Cast Ballots in Election.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) has announced that over one million voters have already cast their vote in the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections. As of 21.00 on the evening of 29 April, a total of 1,165,969 votes had been cast, with 1,083,684 being cast at foreign representative offices and 82,285 being cast at customs gates. Voting will continue until 9 May at foreign representative offices, and until 14 May at 17:00 at customs.
However, earlier this month, Germany, which has 1.5 million eligible Turkish voters, faced difficulties. The Turkish government refused to allow ballot boxes to be set up in 10 cities where Germany wanted them. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy tried to negotiate, but only Kassel was granted permission to set up a ballot box, as its voting day was set for an earlier date than other cities. The German government refused to allow ballot boxes to be set up in the remaining nine cities.
To solve this issue, Turkey added more ballot boxes in the nine German cities. Eight additional ballot boxes were set up in Düsseldorf, where most Turks reside in Germany, eight in Essen, two in Frankfurt, six in Hanover, and two in Karlsruhe. In total, 42 additional ballot boxes were established, including four in Münster, four in Nuremberg, and six in Stuttgart. Furthermore, an additional 32 ballot boxes were set up in France, Austria, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Voters around the world can have their say until 24 June, with voting continuing across Turkey until 24 June.
