Record number of Turkish expats vote for June 24 polls

By Serife Cetin

BRUSSELS (AA) - A record number of Turkish voters living abroad have turned up to cast their votes in Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, Turkey's election body announced late Tuesday.

Voting in Turkey is set to start on June 24, but for expat Turkish citizens voting abroad, the polls are now closed.

The Turkish Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced the turnout after expat voting ended in 51 countries.

According to official YSK figures, it reached 48.78 percent, with a total of 1,486,408 Turkish citizens heading to the polls between June 7-19.

Over 3 million Turks living abroad are eligible to vote in the elections.

Turkish citizens living abroad and traveling to Turkey this month can also cast their votes at customs gates until 5 p.m. local time on June 24.

Six candidates are running for president while eight political parties are taking part in the parliamentary elections.

If the presidential election goes to a second round, voters will go to the polls again on one of the following Sundays.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has served as president since 2014 -- Turkey's first popularly elected president. Before that, he served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014. If reelected on Sunday, he would be Turkey's first president under its new presidential system of government.