A third of Turkish expatriates in Britain turned out to vote last weekend in the first overseas parliamentary election.
Over 28,000 people – out of a registered 84,556 – registered Turkish passport holders from the UK have voted to determine the next Turkish government in the first election of its kind to be held overseas.
The figure was a marked rise on turnout for last year’s presidential election, which saw Recep Tayyip Erdoğan elected to Turkey’s top job. Just 6% of Turkish expats in the UK turned out to vote in that election.
According to the Turkish Consulate in London, a total of 28,447 UK-registered expats voted in this year’s parliamentary vote.
The vast majority – 24,156 – were at London’s Olympia Exhibition Centre, while 741 voted in Edinburgh, where ballot boxes were opened for the first time at the city’s Turkish Consulate.
A number of the main Turkish political parties put on buses to ferry voters from North London and beyond to the ballot boxes, which aided the turnout but occasionally caused brief, long queues.
Consular officials also said 3550 UK-registered expatriates cast ballots at polling stations set up at Turkish air, land and sea borders. Any overseas citizen who has not yet voted and is travelling in the next few days can still vote at Turkish borders until 5pm local time on Sunday.
‘NEAR-PERFECT’ ELECTION
Emirhan Yorulmazlffar, Turkey’s London Consul-General, hailed the turnout at last weekend’s London election:
“There really has been a busy turnout in two days. Our consular officials have been working intensively for six months, with around 270 people working from the Embassy, the Consulate and among state officials.
“I want to thank our citizens for the large turnout. Our election system worked in a near-pefect manner. Voting took place harmoniously and safely.”
More people voted on Sunday – 12,952 – than on Saturday, when 11,204 people voted, Mr Yorulmazlar said, adding that this was a fivefold increase on last year’s presidential election.
VOTING PROBLEMS
Some voters complained about not being registered, but Mr Yorulmazlar said that the majority of problems were down to people having invalid passports or ID cards.
“There were some problems were address declarations,” he said.
“Citizens need to ensure their documents are up to date and their home address is correctly declared with us to ensure they can benefit from voting rights at the next election. They can do this by applying online or by post.”
