Türkiye local elections 2024: Date, polling times, contestants

Turkish voters are preparing for important municipal elections scheduled on March 31.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) has announced the names of 36 political parties that are eligible to run in the elections.

Some of the parties in the fray are the Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Republican People's Party (CHP), the IYI Party, the Grand Union Party (BBP), the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah), the DEM Party, as well as the Saadet and the Demokrat parties.

The results of the elections to local bodies in Türkiye’s three major metropolitan cities — Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir — are the most eagerly anticipated outcomes in these elections.

In Istanbul, Murat Kurum, a first-time candidate for the ruling AK Party, will compete against Ekrem Imamoglu, the incumbent mayor from the main opposition CHP.

In Ankara, the frontrunners are Turgut Altinok of the AK Party and Mansur Yavas of the CHP. Similarly leading the race in Izmir are Hamza Dag from the AK Party and Cemil Tugay of the CHP.

Over a million new voters

Of the 61,441,882 registered voters eligible to vote in these elections, 1,032,610 are young people who can vote for the first time, across over 206,000 polling stations to be set up nationwide.

The upcoming elections will determine mayors for 81 provinces, 973 districts and 390 townships, along with 50,336 mukhtars. They will also choose members to provincial general assemblies and municipal councils.

Every Turkish citizen who has reached the age of 18 by the date of the elections, has the right to vote.

The distribution of voter information papers, which began on February 29, was scheduled to have been completed by March 24. Voters will not be required to bring their information papers with them.

Voters can check the YSK website, as well as the e-Government portal, the YSK voter inquiry mobile application, and the YSK call centre at "444 9 975", to find out the location of the ballot box where they are registered to vote.

Voting hours

Due to seasonal conditions and sunset times in March, YSK has moved the voting hours one hour ahead in the 32 eastern provinces.

Accordingly, in Adiyaman, Agri, Artvin, Bingol, Bitlis, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Erzincan, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gumushane, Hakkari, Kars, Malatya, Kahramanmaras, Mardin, Mus, Ordu, Rize, Siirt, Sivas, Trabzon, Tunceli, Sanliurfa, Van, Bayburt, Batman, Sirnak, Ardahan, Igdir, and Kilis, and in correctional facilities in these provinces, the voting hours will be from 07:00 to 16:00.

In other provinces, voting will take place from 08:00 to 17:00 local time.

In the eastern provinces, where the voting hours are from 07:00 to 16:00, counting of votes cannot begin before 16:00. In other provinces, it cannot begin before 17:00. Even if all voters listed in the ballot box have cast their votes, the ballot boxes will not be opened before the end of the voting hours.

In metropolitan municipalities, votes for metropolitan mayorship, municipal mayorship, municipal council membership, and mukhtarship will be counted and tallied sequentially. In contrast, in other provinces, votes for municipal mayorship, municipal council membership, provincial council membership and mukhtarship will be counted and tallied sequentially.