More than 1.92M expats vote in Türkiye’s presidential runoff election

By Kemal Karadag

ANKARA (AA) – More than 1.92 million Turkish nationals have cast their votes abroad so far for Türkiye's May 28 presidential runoff.

Voting at diplomatic missions ended on Wednesday, while the polling will continue at customs gates until 5 p.m. local time (1400GMT) on Sunday, Election Day in Türkiye itself.

According to Türkiye's Supreme Election Council, more than 1.92 million people cast their votes at Türkiye's foreign missions and customs gates as of 4 p.m. local time (1300GMT) on Saturday.

In the May 14 elections, some 1.84 million Turkish citizens abroad went to the polls to vote in both presidential and parliamentary elections.

Voter turnout in the presidential runoff has so far beaten that total by nearly 80,600.

People unable to cast their ballots within designated times in their country of residence will be able to vote at customs gates until 5 p.m. Sunday.

In the first round of the elections, Turkish nationals abroad cast their votes at the country'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 a second round as no candidate won a simple majority, or more than 50% of the votes. Erdogan, however, led with 49.52%.

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 Sunday’s runoff vote.​​​​​​​

*Writing by Gozde Bayar