A high voter turnout was recorded in Türkiye’s groundbreaking presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday.
The turnout was recorded as 88.3% with over 92% of the votes counted, barely above the 88.2% turnout in the 2018 elections.
Long lines were seen in polling stations across the country, starting from the early hours of the morning until 5 p.m. local time, when voting ended.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) put the expat voter turnout at 53%, with nearly 800,000 voters, compared to 350,000 in 2018.
Voter turnout stood at 88.2% in the 2018 presidential elections.
More than 64.1 million people were registered to vote, including over 1.76 million who have already cast their ballots abroad and 4.9 million first-time voters.
A total of 191,885 ballot boxes were set up for voters in the country. Every voter cast two ballots, one for the president and the other for lawmakers, who will serve five-year terms.
Voters chose between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is seeking reelection, leading opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Sinan Oğan.
Muharrem Ince, another presidential contender, withdrew from the race earlier Thursday.
However, despite his withdrawal, the YSK – Türkiye's election authority – has affirmed the validity of votes for the candidate.
Over 30 political parties and 150 independent parliamentary candidates competed in the elections.
Five multiparty blocs ran in the elections: the People's Alliance, the Nation Alliance, the Ancestral Alliance, the Labor and Freedom Alliance, and the Union of Socialist Forces Alliance.
