Polling stations in Türkiye’s local elections closed at 5 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT) on Sunday with a high turnout from more than 61 million eligible voters across 81 provinces.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced the lifting of the broadcast ban on municipal elections on Sunday evening. Official results are soon to be revealed.
Vote counting started shortly after the ballot boxes closed and the preliminary results are expected to be published later in the evening.
Voting started at 7 a.m. local time and closed at 4 p.m. in 32 eastern provinces while the remaining provinces closed polling stations at 5 p.m.
Some 1.32 million young people voted for the first time. With candidates from 34 political parties competing, more than 206,000 polling stations were set up nationwide.
A total of 81 provincial, 973 district and 390 township mayors along with 50,336 mukhtars, as well as provincial general assembly and municipal council membership elections are up for grabs.
There are 1,003 election districts for mayoral elections at the provincial and district levels.
A total of 12,725 candidates, including 653 independents, are vying for these seats.
In Istanbul, there are a record-breaking 49 candidates for metropolitan mayor, with 22 representing political parties and 27 running independently.
Two districts in Istanbul, Bakırköy and Sultanbeyli, had 25 candidates each competing for the district mayor position.
Ankara had a total of 24 candidates running for the town hall.
In Ankara's largest district, Çankaya, there are 28 candidates, with 26 from political parties and two independents.
The major competing parties are the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Good Party (IP) and the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
Election campaigns ended Saturday and a broadcast ban took effect across the country ahead of the elections.
According to the ban imposed by the Supreme Election Council (YSK), media organizations were not allowed to broadcast political advertising, predictions or comments about the polls until 6 p.m. on Sunday.
The YSK reserves the right to lift the bans before 9 p.m. on Sunday.
