Turkey's local elections will be held this Sunday when 52.7 million eligible voters (26.7 million women and 26.0 million men) will have the opportunity to cast their ballots. Figures published by the High Election Board show that, much like the voting public, candidates' profiles are also quite diverse.

The findings show that AK Party candidates are overall more educated, more urban and younger. Figures indicate that 71.63 percent of AK Party candidates have degrees from a university compared to 57.22 percent of the candidates from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), 53.70 percent of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidates and only 26.34 percent of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) candidates. Another focus of the Election board was candidates' occupations. Compared to other parties only 7.90 percent of AK Party candidates are retired while 20.02 percent of CHP and 22.54 percent of MHP candidates have already left the workforce. Figures also show that a large number of AK Party candidates have a learned profession that requires university education. Among AK Party candidates, the number of engineers, business managers, economists and lawyers are quite high in comparison to the low number of laborers and businesspersons. According to Election Board figures, 12.07 percent of AK Party candidates are engineers followed by CHP with 9.54 percent, MHP with 7.81 percent and BDP with 2.28 percent.

The figures also show that BDP has the largest percentage of candidates who are lawyers compared to other parties.
Results showed that 6.84 percent of BDP candidates are lawyers followed by the AK Party with 5.27 percent, CHP with
3.53 percent and MHP with 3.35 percent.