Will today’s Turkish election be fateful? “Erdogan’s power may be over.”

At 8 a.m. local time on Sunday (7 a.m. CET), polling stations opened throughout Turkey for the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Photo: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry

Citizens over the age of 18 can go to the polls until 5:00 p.m. local time (4:00 p.m. CET). The Turkish authorities registered a total of 64 million 113 thousand 941 voters, 60 million 697 thousand 843 domestically and 3 million 416 thousand 98 abroad.

Four million 904 thousand 672 people can vote for the first time.

According to the latest data published by the State Statistics Office in February 2023, Turkey has almost 85.3 million inhabitants.

In the presidential election, the main rival of the current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has been the president of the largest opposition group, the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), since 2010. Apart from them, Sinan Ogan, a former right-wing member of parliament, is also in the running, but his chances are far behind those of his competitors. Until Thursday, Erdogan had a third challenger, Muharrem Ince, but he withdrew, otherwise he also had low support.

Behind each presidential candidate is a party alliance, not just a party. Erdogan is supported by the People’s Alliance, Kilicdaroglu by the Nation’s Alliance, while Ogan is supported by the Father’s Alliance.

If none of the candidates gets at least 50 percent of the votes plus one vote in the May 14 presidential election, a second round will be held two weeks later, on May 28. The parliamentary election is single-round.

The President of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), Ahmet Yener, said on Friday that the non-final results will be announced on the day of the elections, i.e. Sunday.

Turks living abroad could vote at Turkey’s diplomatic missions between April 27 and May 9, but they can also vote at Turkish customs gates, i.e. at international airports and the country’s border stations, until 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Until May 9, 1 million 817 thousand 10 foreign Turks exercised their right to vote, their participation rate was 53.19 percent. Their ballots were delivered to Ankara in the past few days. These envelopes are also opened after the polls close at 5 p.m.

According to the election law, which has been in force since 1961, the publication of any kind of news, guesses and comments about the election itself and its results will be prohibited until 6 p.m. in all media outlets.

Between 18:00 and 21:00 in the evening, the media can only publish information published by the YSK.

YSK is scheduled to lift media restrictions at 9:00 p.m., although it may decide to move this time earlier.

In addition to the restrictions on the press, the sale and public consumption of alcoholic beverages will also be prohibited from 6 a.m. to midnight on Sunday. Restaurants can also only serve food. In addition, nightclubs, bars, pubs, but also tea rooms, cafes, cinemas and even internet cafes are closed. Furthermore, no one except the police and those entrusted with the protection of public order may carry a weapon. Even weddings are not allowed until 18:00 in the evening, but between 18:00 and 24:00 only by observing the listed prohibitions.