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Elections in Turkey

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Scene inside a polling station during the Turkish general election of 2015: a voter, election officials and a standard transparent ballot box.
"Turkey elections" redirects here. For elections where an undesirable "turkey" candidate is elected, see Turkey-raising. For elections where a literal turkey has been elected, see non-human electoral candidate.
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Elections in Turkey are held for six functions of government: presidential elections (national), parliamentary elections (national), municipality mayors (local), district mayors (local), provincial or municipal council members (local) and muhtars (local). Apart from elections, referendums are also held occasionally.

The parliamentary elections are held every five years. The Parliament (Meclis) has 600 members, elected for a five-year term by a system based on closed list proportional representation according to the D'Hondt method. Political parties are subject to an electoral threshold of 7%. Smaller parties can avoid the electoral threshold by forming an alliance with bigger parties, in which it is sufficient that total votes of the alliance passes the 7%. Independent candidates are not subject to electoral threshold.

The presidential elections are held every five years. The president is elected for a term of office of five years and is eligible for one re-election. There is an exception when a president's second term ends prematurely through a decision of the Parliament. In this case, the president can be re-elected for a third term.

To put forward a referendum regarding constitutional amendments, a supermajority (three fifths of the votes) in the parliament is required first. These kinds of referendums are binding.

Turkey has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and often a fourth party that is electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has mainly been dominated by conservative parties. Even the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tends to identify itself with the "tradition" of Democrat Party (DP). While on the left side of the spectrum, parties like Republican People's Party (CHP), Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) and Democratic Left Party (DSP) have enjoyed the largest electoral success.

The constitutional referendum of 2017 enhanced the powers of the president, and since 2018, the focus has shifted from parliamentary to the presidential elections.[1]

Schedule

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Past Future
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028
Constitutional
referendum 		General
(parliamentary &
presidential) 		Local None None None General
(parliamentary &
presidential) 		Local None None None General
(parliamentary &
presidential)
  • Bold: latest elections, italic: upcoming elections

List of elections

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Presidential elections

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Main article: Turkish presidential elections
Date Election Notes
29 October 1923 1923 Turkish presidential election Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was elected founding president.
1 November 1927 1927 Turkish presidential election Mustafa Kemal Atatürk re-elected
4 May 1931 1931 Turkish presidential election Mustafa Kemal Atatürk re-elected
1 March 1935 1935 Turkish presidential election Mustafa Kemal Atatürk re-elected
11 November 1938 1938 Turkish presidential election İsmet İnönü succeeded Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
3 April 1939 1939 Turkish presidential election İsmet İnönü re-elected
8 March 1943 1943 Turkish presidential election İsmet İnönü re-elected
5 June 1946 1946 Turkish presidential election İsmet İnönü re-elected
22 May 1950 1950 Turkish presidential election Celâl Bayar succeeded İsmet İnönü
14 May 1954 1954 Turkish presidential election Celâl Bayar re-elected
1 November 1957 1957 Turkish presidential election Celâl Bayar re-elected
26 October 1961 1961 Turkish presidential election After the 1961 coup, Cemal Gürsel was elected president.
28 March 1966 1966 Turkish presidential election Cevdet Sunay succeeded Cemal Gürsel
6 April 1973 1973 Turkish presidential election Fahri Korutürk succeeded Cevdet Sunay
12 March 1980 1980 Turkish presidential election Parties failed to elect a president, 1980 coup d'état ensued
31 October 1989 1989 Turkish presidential election Turgut Özal succeeded Kenan Evren
16 May 1993 1993 Turkish presidential election Süleyman Demirel succeeded Turgut Özal
5 May 2000 2000 Turkish presidential election Ahmet Necdet Sezer succeeded Süleyman Demirel
28 August 2007 2007 Turkish presidential election Abdullah Gül succeeded Ahmet Necdet Sezer
10 August 2014 2014 Turkish presidential election Recep Tayyip Erdoğan succeeded Abdullah Gül
24 June 2018 2018 Turkish presidential election Recep Tayyip Erdoğan re-elected
28 May 2023 2023 Turkish presidential election Recep Tayyip Erdoğan re-elected

Parliamentary elections

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Main article: Parliamentary elections in Turkey

The following sections give list of key results.[2]

At first, Turkey had a unicameral legislature, with the main chamber being the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. This lasted until 1961, when the new Constitution of 1961 replaced the previous unicameral (one house) system with a bicameral (two house) one. The Grand National Assembly was downgraded to the position of the lower house whilst the newly founded Senate of the Republic became the upper house. However, the constitution of 1982 abolished the Senate and Turkey once again adopted a unicameral system.

Date Election
21 July 1946 1946 Turkish general election
14 May 1950 1950 Turkish general election
2 May 1954 1954 Turkish general election
27 October 1957 1957 Turkish general election
15 October 1961 1961 Turkish general election
10 October 1965 1965 Turkish general election
12 October 1969 1969 Turkish general election
14 October 1973 1973 Turkish general election
5 June 1977 1977 Turkish general election
6 November 1983 1983 Turkish general election
29 October 1987 1987 Turkish general election
20 October 1991 1991 Turkish general election
25 December 1995 1995 Turkish general election
18 April 1999 1999 Turkish general election
3 November 2002 2002 Turkish general election
22 July 2007 2007 Turkish general election
12 June 2011 2011 Turkish general election
7 June 2015 2015 Turkish general election (Jun)
1 November 2015 2015 Turkish general election (Nov)
24 June 2018 2018 Turkish general election
14 May 2023 2023 Turkish general election

Senate elections 1961–80

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Date Election
15 October 1961 1961 Turkish senate elections
7 June 1964 1964 Turkish senate elections
5 June 1966 1966 Turkish senate elections
2 June 1968 1968 Turkish senate elections
14 October 1973 1973 Turkish senate elections
12 October 1975 1975 Turkish senate elections
7 June 1977 1977 Turkish senate elections
14 October 1979 1979 Turkish senate elections

Local elections

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The Turkish administrative system defines three different district types for local elections: villages, cities and metropolitan cities. The difference between cities and metropolitan cities derives from the size of the population. Cities with more than 750,000 residents are labeled as metropolitan cities while the rest are simply called cities. There are 31 metropolitan cities and 50 cities across Turkey, and voters in both will have a total of four votes. Citizens have the opportunity to vote for the following offices, depending on the type of area they reside:[3]

This is a summary of the past local elections:

By-elections

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If too many seats become vacant in the parliament or if elections in a district is not properly conducted, then a by-election is required to take place.

  • 1936 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1945 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1947 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1948 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1949 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1951 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1966 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1968 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1975 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1979 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 1986 Turkish parliamentary by-elections
  • 2003 Turkish parliamentary by-elections

Referendums

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Main article: Referendums in Turkey
Date Referendum
9 July 1961 1961 Turkish constitutional referendum
7 November 1982 1982 Turkish constitutional referendum
6 September 1987 1987 Turkish constitutional referendum
25 September 1988 1988 Turkish constitutional referendum
21 October 2007 2007 Turkish constitutional referendum
12 September 2010 2010 Turkish constitutional referendum
16 April 2017 2017 Turkish constitutional referendum

Voter turnout

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The voter turnout for the average of 18 parliamentary election is 81.4%; of the local elections is 78.7% and of the referendums is 83.1%. Turkey relatively has a high voter turnout rate comparing to modern democracies. The participation rate in Turkey is also higher than the participation rates in countries where compulsory voting is loosely applied. With the exception of 1960–1970, voter turnout rate in Turkey is above the world average from 1950 to the present in Turkey.[4]

Voter turnout at parliamentary elections [1950-2023]
1950 1954 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1983 1987
89.3% 88.6% 76.6% 81.4% 71.3% 64.3% 66.8% 72.4% 92.3% 93.3%
1991 1995 1999 2002 2007 2011 2015 2018 2023
83.9% 85.2% 87.1% 79.1% 84.2% 83.2% 85.2% 86.2% 87.1%

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Carkoglu, Ali (2022). "Chapter 21: Election Law in Turkey". In Schultz, Toplak (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Election Law. Routledge. pp. 247–256. ISBN 9781138393363.
  2. ^ "Türkiye 2015 Genel Seçim Sonuçları". Archived from the original on 2015-06-09. Retrieved 2015-06-07.
  3. ^ "Seven facts to know about Turkey's local elections". 29 March 2019. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  4. ^ Çaylak, Adem (25 October 2017). "Voter turnout in Turkey: a cross-national comparison". Journal of International Social Research. 10 (52): 352–351. doi:10.17719/jisr.2017.1897. Retrieved 30 April 2021.

Further reading

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  • Toros, Emre. Electoral Integrity in Turkey. United Kingdom, Edinburgh University Press, 2024.
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