As expats set the ball rolling in Türkiye’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the spotlight is now on the electorate, who will have the final say in the democratic process.

Over the years, Türkiye has recorded a high voter turn-out, with an eye-popping 86 percent exercising the franchise in the 2018 presidential elections.

While expats will vote between April 27 and May 9, voting in Türkiye will be held on May 14.

Türkiye has undergone significant changes in its electoral system since the 1990s, with the introduction of direct presidential elections in 2014 and a new presidential system of government in 2017, as well as the new election law which reduced the electoral threshold to 7 percent that was passed in April 2022.

Voter turnout

Voter participation in Türkiye’s presidential elections since the 1990s has been relatively high, with an average turnout of 78.5 percent, according to the International IDEA Voter Turnout Database.

One of the highest turnouts in Türkiye's electoral history was recorded in the 2018 presidential election, with 86.2% of eligible voters casting their ballots.

Türkiye’s lowest turnout was recorded in the 2014 presidential election, with 74 percent of eligible voters casting their ballots.

Comparison to other democracies

Türkiye also had the highest voter turnout rate compared to some other democratic countries – Greece (2019), the United States (2020), the United Kingdom (2019), Norway (2021) and India (2019) elections.

Norway had the second-highest turnout rate of 77 percent in the 2021 elections. The US had a voter turnout of 70.7 percent in the 2020 elections, and the UK with 67.5 percent in the 2019 elections.

Greece saw the lowest voter turnout rate among these countries, with only 57.8 percent of eligible voters participating in the 2019 elections while 67 percent cast their votes in India in the 2019 elections.

Electoral changes and direct voting

Türkiye has held five local and general elections since the introduction of direct presidential elections in 2014, where the president was elected by the people.

Prior to that, the president was elected by the parliament, which involved two rounds of voting. In the first round, a candidate needed to receive at least two-thirds of the votes in the parliament to be elected.

If no candidate received two-thirds of the votes, a second round of voting was held between the two candidates who received the highest number of votes in the first round.

In the second round, the candidate who received a majority of the votes in the parliament was elected president.

The president elected by the parliament had a largely ceremonial role, with limited executive powers and the prime minister, who was designated by the president from among the members of the largest party of the parliament, was the head of government and held the real executive power.

However, the role of the president changed significantly with the constitutional referendum held in 2017, which introduced a new presidential system of government

Under the new system, the president is the head of state and the head of government, with strong executive powers

The president is now directly elected by the people through a national popular vote

Members of the parliament are elected by the people through a general election, which is held every five years.

On Thursday, 17 days before the crucial elections in Türkiye, hundreds of thousands of Turkish nationals residing abroad initiated their voting process in the countries of their residence or at Turkish border posts.

Out of the 64.1 million electorate, 3.4 million registered Turkish voters live outside the country, accounting for over five percent of the electorate.