According to the Supreme Electoral Commission in Turkey, 64 million and 113 thousand and 941 voters inside and outside the country were entitled to vote in the elections.
Of these, 4,904,672 are eligible to participate for the first time, 47,523 voters may join them in the second round.
Electoral castles
The ruling Justice and Development Party has been the largest party in Turkey since its founding, and has been able to extend its roots in many Turkish states, especially in the regions of central Anatolia and the Black Sea, and some provinces in southeastern Anatolia, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sea of Marmara.
As for the Republican People’s Party, its castles are spread on the coasts of the Aegean region, while a large number of states in southeastern Anatolia and eastern Anatolia constitute strongholds for the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party.
The Nationalist Movement and the Good Party are also competing for some states in central Anatolia, while the states of Osmaniye, Adana, Marsin, Agdir, Belkesir, Isparta, Gumushane, Afyon, Manisa, Aydin, Negda, Kastamony and Yozgat are considered bastions of justice and development.
Istanbul
The largest city with electoral weight within Turkey, represented by 98 seats in Parliament out of 600, or nearly one-sixth, and the total number of Istanbul voters is 11,350,971 citizens, who live in 39 regions within it and represent 17.7% of the total number of Turkish voters.
It was a good omen for Erdogan on the way to power when he assumed the mayorship in the nineties, but his party lost the presidency of its major municipality in the previous local elections in 2019, so that Akram Imamoglu won it as a candidate for the Republican People’s Party.
Regarding the old sayings about Erdogan, he said, “Whoever rules Istanbul rules Turkey,” so the loss of the municipality was a painful blow to the ruling party, and its chances are equal to those of the opposition in voting in the city.
Kurdish voices
The number of Kurds is 15 million, and they make up nearly 20% of the Turkish people. An opinion poll published this week showed that 76.3% of voters in Diyarbakir support the opposition candidate in the presidential elections, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, compared to 20.5% who support Erdogan.
The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was very unpopular in southeastern Turkey in the past, but under Kilicdaroglu’s leadership it managed to reach out to the Kurds and the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), dominant across the region, which won 67 percent of the vote in Diyarbakir in the 2018 elections. .
Opinion polls indicate a decline in Erdogan’s popularity in the region, but he still maintains a base of supporters in the region.
Istanbul votes are decisive
Turkish political analyst Turgut Oglu told Sky News Arabia that the city of Istanbul is one of the most important reservoirs in the voting elections.
The Turkish analyst added that in the 2019 elections, the opposition managed for the first time to defeat the ruling party in the municipal elections, which shocked the party at the time.
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