Istanbul: More than 470,000 Turkish citizens came to the polls on the first day of voting abroad and on border checkpoints in the second round of the presidential election, the country’s Supreme Election Council said.
“By 16:00 on Saturday, 452,257 people had voted at foreign missions, and 19,477 at border checkpoints,” the election council said as quoted by the state-run TRT Haber broadcaster.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received 49.24% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election held earlier this month, while his main opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, got 45.07%, according to data from the Supreme Election Council.
The second round of the presidential election in Turkey will be held on May 28. Early voting in the presidential runoff is already taking place in over 70 countries. Ankara said there were over 3.4 million registered voters abroad.
Voting at Turkey’s diplomatic missions abroad will be held until May 24, while voting at border checkpoints, airports and ports will be held until May 28.
The turnout at polling stations abroad in the first round of the presidential election surpassed 53%.
