What you need to know about the Turkiye elections in 2023

Reuters (Reuters) – Turks will vote on May 14 in one of the most important elections in Turkiye’s modern history, with President Tayyip Erdogan facing the most serious electoral challenge of his two-decade leadership.

Here’s a primer on the election, presidential candidates, and political coalitions battling for power:

THE VOTING

Turks will choose a president and a parliament for a five-year term.

A contender must get more than 50% of the votes cast in order to win the presidency in the first round. If no candidate receives more than half of the vote, a runoff election will take conducted on May 28 between Erdogan and opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

In 2017, a vote narrowly approved converting Turkey from a parliamentary to a presidential system, expanding the presidency’s powers. The position of prime minister was eliminated, and the president became the head of government.

In addition, 600 members of parliament will be elected by voters. They are chosen in 87 districts using party-list proportional representation.

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers usually watch Turkish elections around the nation. Political parties will also be represented by observers.

POLLING

More than 64 million Turks, including more than 6 million first-time voters, are eligible to vote. Overseas, 3.4 million voters finished their ballots by May 9.

In Turkey, voters will cast votes at 190,736 polling places. On May 14, polls will open at 0800 a.m. (0500 GMT) and end at 0500 p.m. (1400 GMT).

Election turnout in Turkey is normally high. In 2018, about 87% of eligible voters voted.

The selling of alcoholic beverages is prohibited on election day.

RESULTS

According to the High Election Board (YSK), on election day, news, predictions, and comments regarding the vote are prohibited until 6 p.m. (1300 GMT), in accordance with election legislation.

Reports on certain parts of the election are then permitted, but media outlets are not permitted to report on the results until 9 p.m. (1800 GMT), when they will begin to arrive from around Turkey.

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If the YSK deems it essential, it may decide to waive the ban on such reporting before 9 p.m.

By late Sunday, the outcome of the presidential election may be known.

THE CANDIDATES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

TAYYIP ERDOGAN, PRESIDENT

Erdogan aspires to prolong his reign as modern Turkey’s longest-serving ruler more than 20 years after he and his AK Party (AKP) came to power. In 2018, he received 52.6% of the vote in the first round.

Polls reveal that support is now between 44 and 45%.

KILICDAROGLU, KEMAL

Kilicdaroglu is the biggest opposition alliance’s joint presidential candidate. He is the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which was founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the modern Turkey’s founder.

Polls reveal that his popularity is close to the vital 50% mark.

OGAN, SINAN

Ogan was a former member of Erdogan’s AK Party’s affiliate, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Currently, polls show him well behind.

ALLIANCES POLITICAL

Turkey has several political parties that have formed electoral partnerships.

The most important are:

THE ALLIANCE OF THE PEOPLE

Erdogan’s AKP and the MHP created the People’s Alliance ahead of the 2018 election, and it won both the presidential and legislative elections.

The New Welfare Party of Fatih Erbakan, the son of Erdogan’s mentor Necmettin Erbakan, and the right-wing Great Unity Party have now joined it.

THE ALLIANCE OF THE NATION

The Nation Alliance, the major opposition group, supports Kilicdaroglu for president. It was founded before of the 2018 election by the CHP, the center-right IYI Party, the Islamist Felicity (Saadet) Party, and the Democrat Party (DP).

It startled Erdogan by defeating AKP mayoral candidates in Ankara and Istanbul in 2019 municipal elections – a position Erdogan held in the 1990s and which his AKP had governed for almost two decades.

Former Erdogan supporters launched two parties that eventually joined the alliance: the Deva (Remedy) Party founded by Ali Babacan, who left the AKP due to disagreements over its direction, and the Future Party founded by Ahmet Davutoglu, a former prime minister who was previously an AKP member.

THE ALLIANCE FOR LABOUR AND FREEDOM

This coalition is headed by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the third-largest party in parliament and a possible kingmaker in the election.

The HDP is not running for president and has not publicly backed anybody, but it has said that it would carry out its “responsibility against the one-man rule.”

The HDP’s collaboration with the opposition in the 2019 municipal elections aided the AKP’s loss in key cities.

After emerging as a loud opposition figure in the aftermath of the February 6 earthquakes, Turkey’s Workers Party (TIP) joined the alliance.

The Green Left Party (YSP) is also part of the coalition, and HDP candidates will run under its banner to avoid the party’s probable liquidation owing to a lawsuit.