Polling in Turkey’s parliamentary and presidential elections began on Sunday, with 56,322,632 registered voters and 180,065 ballot boxes across the country, Anadolu agency reported.
Voters will be able to cast their ballots after they show their ID cards or any other official identification document. It is forbidden to enter the voting booth with photo/video cameras and mobile phones.
Voters are casting two separate ballot papers in the same envelope -- one for the presidential and one for the parliamentary elections. After the voting ends, ballots cast for the presidential candidates will be counted first.
For the first time, bedridden voters -- more than 17,000 -- are being visited at their homes by election officials who will pick up their ballots.
Some 1.49 million expats voted in a 13-day period between June 7-19 at 123 Turkish missions abroad. Expat votes have been brought to Turkey by airmail and they will be counted at the same time as the votes cast in Turkey. Balloting at customs gates that began on June 7 and will end today.
Eight political parties are participating in the parliamentary elections that include the Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the Free Cause (Huda-Par) Party, the newly formed Good (IYI) Party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Felicity (Saadet) Party and the Patriotic (Vatan) Party.
Six candidates are running for president: Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the alliance (People’s Alliance) formed by Turkey’s ruling AK Party and the MHP, Muharrem Ince for CHP, Selahattin Demirtas for HDP, Meral Aksener for the Good (IYI) Party, Temel Karamollaoglu for the Felicity (Saadet) Party, and Dogu Perincek for the Patriotic (Vatan) Party.
