Earthquake victims vote in containers for Türkiye's elections
Voters queue to cast their ballots, in Malatya, Türkiye, May 14, 2023. (AA Photo)


Voters in southeastern Türkiye, devastated by earthquakes on Feb. 6, cast their ballots on Sunday in schools and containers set up in the gardens of damaged schools across several quake-hit cities for the country's presidential and parliamentary elections.

The ballot box president and officials who went to schools in Kahramanmaraş in the early morning hours completed their preparations.

Some voters in Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman and Kilis, which were affected by the earthquakes on Feb. 6 described as the "disaster of the century," started to vote in containers set up in the gardens of the damaged schools.

Some voters formed lines in front of containers in the garden of Onikişubat district's Zeki Karakız Secondary School.

Despite the early morning hours, citizens queued up at the ballot box.

Some 753,287 voters in Kahramanmaraş will vote in 2,405 ballot boxes for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

In the city center of Gaziantep, citizens cast their votes in schools. In the districts of Islahiye and Nurdağı, which were heavily affected by the earthquakes, ballot containers were used in the voting process.

In Malatya and Adıyaman, in addition to the undamaged schools that survived the earthquake, voting containers were set up in the neighborhoods with damaged schools and in container cities.

In Şanlıurfa and Kilis, citizens went to the polls early in the morning.

In Hatay, over a million voters started heading to 3,152 ballot boxes to vote. Citizens in Antakya and Defne districts voted in undamaged school buildings and containers in school gardens.

The governorship provided free-of-charge transport for citizens staying in container and tent cities and those that did not have access to transportation.

In the early morning hours in Osmaniye, citizens came to schools to vote. They lined in front of classes where ballot boxes were set up.

Earthquake victims staying in containers and tents cast their votes at schools in the neighborhood where their homes were located.

In Osmaniye, 385,998 voters cast their votes in 1,170 ballot boxes.

In Adana, 4,795 ballot boxes were set up for 1,612,781 voters.