Higher voter turnout at overseas missions, customs gates in Turkish presidential runoff

By Fatma Sevinc Cetin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish presidential election runoff saw a higher voter turnout at overseas missions and customs gates as of Wednesday, outpacing first round of the polls.

Voting at diplomatic missions ended on Wednesday, while the process will continue at customs gates until 5 p.m. local time on Sunday.

According to the Supreme Election Council (YSK), as many as 1,839,488 Turkish nationals (over 1.839 million) cast their votes at the country's foreign missions and customs gates as of 6:24 p.m. local time.

A total of 1,839,470 people voted at diplomatic missions and customs gates in the first round of the elections on May 14. There is an increase of 18 people so far.

Those who are unable to cast their ballots within the specified time in their country of residence will be able to vote at the customs gates until 5 p.m. Sunday.

For the first round of elections, Turkish nationals abroad cast their votes at Türkiye’s foreign representative offices between April 27 and May 9, and at the customs gates until May 14.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s People’s Alliance won a majority in parliament, while the presidential race headed to the second round as no candidate obtained simple majority, or more than 50% of the votes. Erdogan, however, was leading with 49.52%.

He 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.