Nearly 800,000 folks voted in polling stations overseas as abroad voting began for Turkish residents final week. The quantity is way excessive than some 350,000 individuals who went to the polls in the identical interval through the 2018 elections.
The excessive curiosity for May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, earlier than the polls shut on May 9 for voters overseas, could play into the fingers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which boasted monumental assist from the Turkish diaspora within the earlier elections.
The incumbent President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, garnered over 59% of the vote overseas, forward of his rival, Muharrem Ince, who received solely 25.8% within the 2018 elections. Most of the votes for each candidates have been from Europe. In the 2018 elections, Erdoğan obtained 64% of the votes in Germany, 63% in France, 72% within the Netherlands, 74% in Belgium and 71% in Austria.
Erdoğan’s AK Party has been pursuing an intense election marketing campaign overseas to draw voters with lawmakers organizing marketing campaign occasions.
As of Tuesday night, a complete of 797,841 folks solid their ballots at polling stations in Turkish diplomatic missions the world over and at poll bins positioned at Turkish customs gates.
Some 3.41 million persons are anticipated to solid their votes overseas, together with practically 278,000 younger first-time voters.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has positioned 4,671 polling stations on border gates for these voters. In addition, poll bins are arrange for the primary time in international locations like Belarus, Brazil, Estonia, Morocco, Montenegro, the Republic of Korea, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Portugal, Slovakia and Tanzania.
Once abroad voting ends, ballots can be delivered to Türkiye through diplomatic couriers and strategies decided by the YSK underneath most safety measures to be stored protected within the capital Ankara.
These bins can be opened at 5:00 p.m. after voting ends on May 14 throughout Türkiye. Counting these votes can be finished underneath the supervision of the Directorate of Foreign Provincial Election Council. In the presidential election, votes solid abroad straight add to the entire proportion of votes the candidates garner in Türkiye.
In the parliamentary election, abroad votes are distributed proportionately to constituencies countrywide based on the variety of voters and the ballots events obtain in every province.
Election campaigns for events skilled issues overseas. In Germany, specifically, the AK Party incurred the wrath of supporters of the terrorist teams PKK and Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) when Erdoğan’s election posters adorned the streets in Nuremberg. Nuremberg was the one metropolis to permit posters to be hung. Still, after an enormous social media marketing campaign by terrorist group supporters, the indicators “disappeared.”
In distinction, a spokesperson for the town corridor stated they might implement a regulation sooner or later to limit campaigning for international political events.
Germany hosts essentially the most outstanding Turkish diaspora of 1.5 million folks in Europe. A complete of 26 polling stations are open in Germany alone. Germany was criticized in earlier Turkish elections for blocking election rallies by AK Party. Recently, Germany’s justice minister urged fellow Cabinet members to take motion in opposition to deliberate election rallies by the AK Party in Germany.
Marco Buschmann voiced issues about an “intensive campaign by supporters of the Turkish president” to Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a letter reported by the German media. He cited claims of “limits of freedom of expression” being exceeded previously, noting a speech in Germany by an AK Party lawmaker in Germany’s Neuss.
Mustafa Açıkgöz merely reiterated Türkiye’s willpower to eradicate terrorist teams, together with the PKK and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), in his speech, referring to each teams’ presence in Germany. Açıkgöz’s assertion prompted a disaster between the 2 international locations and was deemed as “hate speech” by officers in Germany, which additionally acknowledges the PKK as a terrorist group.
Buschmann known as fellow ministers to make sure the enforcement of legal guidelines overseeing the assemblies of political teams forward of Turkish elections and “clearly tell Türkiye” that they might not tolerate exceeding the bounds of freedom of expression.
In 2017, Germany amended meeting legal guidelines solely to stop AK Party campaigns sooner or later. The modification bans election rallies towards residents of Germany hailing from one other nation a minimum of three months earlier than the election. Germany joined the Netherlands and Austria in 2018 by prohibiting political rallies by Turkish politicians forward of elections.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
