Voting for the Second Round of Turkey's Presidential Elections Begins Abroad

Turkish citizens residing abroad began voting on Saturday, May 20, for a duration of five days to elect the president of their country. The second round of Turkey's presidential elections is scheduled to take place on June 27. After the candidates in the first round failed to secure the necessary majority, the people will choose between the two main candidates, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan, who has governed Turkey for two decades in both prime ministerial and presidential roles, fell short of the 50% of votes needed for victory in the first round. According to Reuters, Turkish citizens abroad, estimated to number around 3.4 million, can participate in the elections from May 20 to June 3. Germany, with approximately 1.5 million Turkish migrants, has the largest Turkish expatriate community in the world. In the first round of the presidential elections held on May 14, Erdoğan received 49.52% of the votes while Kılıçdaroğlu garnered 44.88%. Sinan Oğan, a defeated rival who secured about 5% of the votes in the first round, could sway the final outcome by endorsing one of the two candidates in the second round. Kılıçdaroğlu, representing a coalition of six opposition parties, has insisted on nationalist policies, declaring that if he wins, he will return all 10 million migrants residing in Turkey, including 3.6 million Syrian refugees, to their homes. This statistic comes despite official figures indicating that Turkey hosts the largest population of migrants in the world, with around 4 million. Erdoğan presents himself as the guarantor of stability in Turkey, even as rampant inflation and rising living costs put increasing pressure on the people. In the parliamentary elections held simultaneously with the presidential elections on May 14, the ruling Justice and Development Party, along with its nationalist allies, managed to secure a parliamentary majority. Kılıçdaroğlu criticized the presence of 10 million 'illegal migrants' in Turkey, while Erdoğan's rival noted 'disorder' at the polling stations, stating they have 12 days to escape this dark tunnel.