Millions of Turkish citizens are expected to flock to the ballot boxes on Nov. 1 to have a say in the country's political future. Election fever has engulfed the public, which will choose its lawmakers to form the 26th Parliament of the country. There are a total of 56,971,736 voters, 50.7 percent of whom are women. Seventy-five million ballots have been printed and over 1 million Turkish citizens abroad have cast their votes for the Sunday's elections, a factor that is believed to be influential in the elections, where every single vote will count. A high turnout is expected as Turkey has already proven its participatory side in previous elections in the country. Without a doubt, among others, two parties have taken center stage in the discussions as the country heads to the elections – the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which succeeded in passing the 10 percent election threshold in the June 7 election, and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which is vying for a single-party government with a simple majority in Parliament. Experts believe a slight drop in support for opposition parties will secure the needed majority for the AK Party. In a televised interview, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the government will take every precaution to ensure fair elections are held on Nov 1.He said nobody has the right to alter the nation's will by tampering with ballot boxes, asserting: "We will take any precaution in the context of the authorization given to us by law. No citizen in Turkey should have to worry about this. We will take every kind of measure. If someone threatens the security of the ballot boxes, we will prosecute and punish them to the fullest extent allowed by law."Several local election boards, which are made up of political party members and senior bureaucrats serving in the area, had earlier decided to relocate some ballot boxes to safer neighborhoods due to security concerns in Cizre, Yüksekova, Ceylanpınar, Şanlıurfa and Silvan – all districts located in the southeast where PKK terrorist activities have intensified over the past few months.On Oct. 3, however, the Supreme Election Board (YSK) overruled those demands. Both Davutoğlu and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized the YSK decision for neglecting the security risk. Interim Justice Minister Kenan İpek said: "There is an ongoing terror problem in some of our provinces. Therefore the YSK should have considered this security risk. It should have used its authority to make the right decision."In the June 7 election, the AK Party lost its majority and was unable to form a single-party government thus party chairman Ahmet Davutoğlu was mandated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to form a coalition government. Davutoğlu's AK Party had been seeking a coalition partner after no party was able to win a simple majority in the June 7 general elections, but the other parties in Parliament failed to reach a consensus to form a coalition with or without the AK Party.Just after the June 7 election, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli openly expressed that the party wanted to remain in opposition and maintained their stance throughout coalition talks. The main opposition Republican Peoples' Party (CHP) on the other hand, did not agree to form a coalition with the AK Party even though they spent days in long negotiations. After the failure of the coalition talks, CHP officials announced there were profound differences between the two parties, mainly in foreign policy and education, which were the main reasons for the failure to create a coalition.When compared with the June 7 general elections, the number of votes cast for the Nov. 1 snap elections by Turkish voters living abroad increased by 233,000 and the participation rate reached 43.7 percent.The number of votes cast in Germany alone, home to the largest Turkish community living outside of Turkey, increased by 100,000 votes (19 percent), while in the Netherlands, France, Belgium and the U.K. the increase in votes were respectively 37,000, 30,000, 9,000 and 7,000. The number of Turkish voters registered abroad was 32,000 more when compared to the June 7 elections.Ninety polls were open in Germany, which had 1.41 million registered Turkish voters. Additionally, Turkish expats broke a record in voter turnout in the U.K. for the general elections.Just under 43 percent of eligible voters registered in the U.K. voted at polling stations in London and Edinburgh as well as airports and border crossings in Turkey between Thursday and Sunday. The participation rate in the 2014 European Parliament elections was 43 percent, even though voting by mail was allowed.Members from 4 parties join AK Party on the eve of electionsDozens of members from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Felicity Party (SP), Grand Unity Party (BBP) and Central Party (MP) pledged allegiance to the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) yesterday on the brink of Sunday's Nov. 1 general elections.The new members attended an initiation ceremony organized by the AK Party's provincial organization in Istanbul's Eyüp district.On Oct. 22, Kemal Saraçoğlu, the MHP candidate who ran for mayor in Şanlıurfa province during the March 30 local elections, announced that he had joined the AK Party. According to reports, former labor minister and AK Party's Şanlıurfa deputy Faruk Çelik visited Saraçoğlu and congratulated him during his visit to the province.Prior to that, 150 MHP members also resigned from their party on Oct. 20 to join the AK Party.Tuğrul Türkeş, son of the MHP's founder, Alparslan Türkeş, and one of the party's most influential figures, announced his resignation from the MHP following the party's central disciplinary committee's decision to expel him for accepting to participate in the caretaker cabinet.Türkeş was the first deputy to accept Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu's invitation to take part in the caretaker cabinet and was given the deputy prime minister's post in the run-up to the Nov. 1 election.