The upcoming elections in Turkey will bring many firsts.
They include: mobile ballot boxes, unique party alliances, voting for both MPs and the president, and the race to presidential candidacy with 100,000 signatures from voters.
Below is a list of new features added to the coming election:
1- Citizens will vote for both MPs and president at the same time.
2- The number of prospective MPs will mount from 550 to 600. Ankara will have three different constituencies for the first time
3- A party which won 5 percent in the last election or a candidate who is able to gather 100,000 signatures from citizens will be accepted as a nominee.
4- Several parties have created an alliance for the first time in election history
5- A mobile ballot box will reach the disabled and elderly who are unable to travel to polling booths. So far, 17,258 voters have registered for this facility.
- PARTIES ON STAGE
The Justice and Development (AK) Party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the Free Cause (Huda-Par) Party, the newly formed Good (IYI) Party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Felicity (Saadet) Party and the Patriotic (Vatan) Party are contesting the election.
Turkey's ruling AK Party and the MHP have formed an alliance (People's Alliance) while the CHP, the IYI Party, and the Felicity Party have constituted another (Nation Alliance).
AK party's chairman President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is presented as a candidate to the "People's Alliance" while the main opposition CHP presented Muharrem İnce and HDP reaffirms Selahattin Demirtaş as its nominee.
Meral Akşener from IYI party, Temel Karamollaoğlu from Saadet party and Doğu Perinçek from the Patriotic party will also compete in the election.
This April, parliament passed a bill for early elections on June 24, cementing Turkey's move to a presidential system.
In an April 2017 referendum, Turkish voters approved the switch from a parliamentary system to a presidential one.
