CORRECTS - Nearly 500,000 expats vote for Türkiye’s presidential runoff elections

CHANGES ‘500,000 MILLION’ TO ‘500,000’ IN LEDE

By Yusuf Soykan Bal

ANKARA (AA) - Nearly 500,000 Turkish nationals have cast their votes abroad in the country's foreign missions and customs gates in the second round of Türkiye's presidential election scheduled for May 28.

Since overseas voting began Saturday, 452,257 voters cast ballots at Turkish diplomatic missions, while 19,477 voted at customs gates, for a total of 471,734 people, according to figures from the Supreme Election Council (YSK).

Voting at diplomatic missions will end May 24, while the process will continue at customs gates until 5 p.m. local time May 28.

Millions of voters went to the polls May 14 to elect the president and members of the Turkish 600-seat parliament.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s People’s Alliance won a majority in parliament, while the presidential race is headed to a second round.

In the first round, no candidate won an outright majority, although Erdogan was leading.

Erdogan will face Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and joint candidate for the six-party opposition Nation Alliance, in the runoff vote.