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Polling stations close nationwide as Turkish local elections wrap up-UPDATED

31 March 2024 20:10 (UTC +04:00)

Polling stations across Türkiye closed on Sunday as voting in the country's local elections ended at 5 p.m, APA reports citing Anadolu Agency.

Candidates from a total of 34 political parties competed in the elections, with over 206,000 polling stations set up across the country.

Voters living in Türkiye's larger cities cast their votes for metropolitan municipality mayor, municipality mayor, city council members, as well as mukhtars and elder councils. Those cities include the capital Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir — the nation’s three largest cities by population — as well as Adana, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, Trabzon, and Van.

Ahmet Yener, chairman of the Turkish Supreme Election Council, said that the results are being entered into the SECSIS election system and that the council shares all data entries with the political parties.

Regarding the broadcast ban, he said that the council will meet soon to decide at what time the ban will be lifted.

*** 10:01

Voting in municipal elections in Türkiye has began in the southeast of the republic. Polling stations here opened an hour earlier, at 07:00 local time, APA reports.

Elections in the main part of the country will begin at 08:00 and will last until 17:00.

According to the decision of the Central Election Commission of Türkiye, changes were made to the voting schedule taking into account the specifics of the month of Ramadan. These changes will affect 32 of the 81 provinces.

The Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that election security is ensured by about 600 thousand law enforcement officers, as well as volunteers.