SnO Posted May 14, 2023 Share Posted May 14, 2023 On Sunday morning, more than 60 million Turkish voters will go to the polls to elect a president for the country who will cross the republic towards its second centenary, in addition to 600 deputies who will form the 28th parliament in the history of the republic. Polling stations open at eight in the morning local time, and voting continues until five in the evening. Since six o'clock in the evening, Saturday, local time, Turkey has officially entered the stage of electoral silence, and has banned electoral propaganda in all its forms. The Turkish President is competing for the presidency, the candidate of the People's Alliance, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who aspires to win a second and final term after the country's transition to the presidential system, the candidate of the People's Alliance and the leader of the Republican People's Party, Kamal Kilicdaroglu, and the candidate of the Grandfathers' Alliance, Sinan Ogan. The candidate of the Country Party, Muharram Ince, decided to withdraw from the presidential race on Friday, while 24 political parties are competing for parliamentary seats. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan prays during an evening prayer at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul Erdogan (center) during his visit to the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul (Reuters) Aya Sofia Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ended the last days of the election campaign with sunset prayers at the Hagia Sophia Mosque, where crowds of worshipers gathered. Footage on social media platforms showed Erdogan entering the mosque amidst the worshipers' takbeers, then he sat in the first row and read the openings of Surat Al-Baqara. In 2020, Erdogan reopened this mosque - which is a symbol of the conquest of Constantinople in the 15th century - to hold prayers, in a historic decision since it was converted into a museum in 1934. Before his prayers in the Hagia Sophia, Erdogan held several mass meetings in the neighborhoods of Istanbul, where he addressed the crowds in Umraniye, Sanjak Tepe, as well as in Qasim Pasha, the neighborhood he used to live in in his youth. On his way to Hagia Sophia, Erdogan stopped in the Fatih neighborhood, where he visited Hassan Effendi, the sheikh of the Ismail Agha Naqshbandi Sufi group, whose followers in Turkey are estimated at millions. Hassan Effendi assumed the sheikhdom of the group after the late Mahmoud Effendi. Presidential candidate and Leader of CHP Kemal Kilicdaroglu visits Anitkabir Kilicdaroglu ended his election campaign with a symbolic visit to the tomb of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (Reuters) Mausoleum of Ataturk On the other hand, Kemal Kilicdaroglu - Erdogan's main rival - concluded his election campaign with a symbolic visit to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who is described as the founder of modern Turkey, in the capital, Ankara. Kilicdaroglu walked to the mausoleum among a crowd of young men and women, then laid flowers on Atatürk's grave. In his latest activities on social media platforms, Kilicdaroglu published a video clip in which he said that the most "crazy" projects he had prepared for Turkey were democracy and freedom. Election propaganda and alcohol are prohibited During the electoral silence phase, the Supreme Commission for Radio and Television in Turkey prohibits from six in the evening on Saturday any propaganda for parties on radio and television stations. According to the decision of the Commission itself, the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in public places is prohibited from six o’clock in the morning on the election day until midnight, and it is also prohibited to carry weapons for anyone other than the security forces and those charged with protecting public security. The number of citizens who are entitled to vote in these elections is 60,697,843 voters, of whom 4,904,672 voters vote for the first time. https://www.aljazeera.net/news/2023/5/14/أكثر-من-60-مليون-تركي-يستعدون-للإدلاء Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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