Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Monday, Aug 04, 2025

Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election

Determined to see fair vote, Turks mobilize for May election

Sensing the best chance yet to end President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade rule in Turkiye, his opponents are mobilizing to make sure every ballot is counted in a May election and to guard against any tampering in what is expected to be a tight vote.
With the stakes so high, concerns about potential irregularities have been heightened by upheaval wrought by February’s devastating earthquakes in the southeast, where some 50,000 people were killed and millions made homeless.

Yigit, 26, a student from southern Turkiye, said he will watch the polling in his hometown of Antakya come election day on May 14, to make sure nobody tries to cast ballots in the name of his parents, who died in the disaster.

“I will wait at the ballot box to make sure that no one else is voting in their place,” Yigit said.

His parents have not been officially declared dead because their bodies were not found in the rubble. They still appear as eligible voters, said Yigit, who declined to give his full name.

The election marks the toughest political challenge yet for Erdogan, who was already facing criticism over an economy in crisis when the earthquake struck. While polls show him trailing opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the race remains tight and campaigning is just beginning.

An alliance of six opposition parties hoping to unseat the president is planning measures to safeguard a free and fair election, including recruiting professionals such as lawyers to monitor the voting, said Idris Sahin, deputy chair of DEVA Party.

DEVA officials are comparing voter lists from Dec. 31 with the updated registry in the earthquake zone, he said, including checking whether those who moved away are registered in their new residences and whether those who died have been removed.

Observers should be able to prevent any attempts to cast votes in the names of people who died in the earthquake but who had yet to be removed from the records, Sahin added.

“It is not clear whether some citizens are alive or dead in the earthquake zone. Our members need to be careful about these records,” he said, adding that this number could be between 3,000-5,000 at most.

Opposition parties have alleged electoral irregularities in the past, including criticism of measures taken by the High Electoral Board and Erdogan’s influence over the country’s newsrooms.

Turkiye ranked the 123rd among 167 countries in 2019 according to the Electoral Integrity Project, an academic study which compares elections worldwide.

However, there were no accusations of major rigging in the most recent, 2018 presidential election and the opposition candidate conceded. Erdogan’s AK Party has said it is committed to a free and fair election that respects the will of the people.

Turkish elections are typically monitored by hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country of 85 million people.

Opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations say the exodus of more than 3 million people from the disaster zone poses extra concerns. The earthquake devastated 11 provinces that were home to 14 million people.

“We have a problem updating the electoral records correctly and ballot box security after such a disaster,” said Bekir Agirdir, a board member of pollster KONDA research.

“How many people are actually relocating? How many people will be properly registered on the voter lists?“

The YSK electoral board has said there are no obstacles to holding elections in the southeast, and has announced additional measures such as setting up ballot boxes for voters in temporary shelters and allowing those who moved away to easily change their registered address.

Vote and Beyond, an NGO focused on election security, will commission some 100,000 volunteers as monitors for its system to cross-check the records at each of the 200,000 ballot boxes.

Erdogan’s AK Party has also said it will commission observers.

Mehmet Rustu Tiryaki of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP) said some 9 million voters are registered in the area affected by the earthquake. While some 300,000 to 500,000 of them were thought to have changed addresses, many of those who had left the disaster zone had not, added Tiryaki.

For Yigit, the earthquake and what he sees as the government’s slow response to the disaster weighs on him as he decides how to vote.

My parents “were not protected, and no help came. This time, I will also vote with this responsibility on my shoulders,” he said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
BP’s Largest Oil and Gas Find in 25 Years Uncovered Offshore Brazil
JPMorgan and Coinbase Unveil Partnership to Let Chase Cardholders Buy Crypto Directly
British Tourist Dies Following Hair Transplant in Turkey, Police Investigate
WhatsApp Users Targeted in New Scam Involving Account Takeovers
Trump Deploys Nuclear Submarines After Threats from Former Russian President Medvedev
Germany’s Economic Breakdown and the Return of Militarization: From Industrial Collapse to a New Offensive Strategy
IMF Upgrades Global Growth Forecast as Weaker Dollar Supports Outlook
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
President Trump Diagnosed with Chronic Venous Insufficiency After Leg Swelling
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
Iranian President Reportedly Injured During Israeli Strike on Secret Facility
Kurdistan Workers Party Takes Symbolic Step Towards Peace in Northern Iraq
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
Saudi Arabia Maintains Ties with Iran Despite Israel Conflict
Russia Formally Recognizes Taliban Government in Afghanistan
Mediators Edge Closer to Israel-Hamas Ceasefire Agreement
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Trump Asserts Readiness for Further Strikes on Iran Amid Nuclear Tensions
Iran's Parliament Votes to Suspend Cooperation with Nuclear Watchdog
Trump Announces Upcoming US-Iran Meeting Amid Controversial Airstrikes
Trump Moves to Reshape Middle East Following Israel-Iran Conflict
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
Explosions Rock Doha as Iranian Missiles Target Qatar
“You Have 12 Hours to Flee”: Israeli Threat Campaign Targets Surviving Iranian Officials
Oman Set to Introduce Personal Income Tax, First in Gulf
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
×