Turkish presidential polls begin Sunday

Aman casts her ballot at a polling station in a government school during Turkey's presidential elections in Adana on May 28, 2023. Elections began on Sunday in T rkiye, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and his main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu are competing for the presidency.

The presidential runoff for T.Rkiye starts on Sunday, with the current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his leading contender Kemal Kilicdaroglu competing for the presidency.

The polls will begin at 8 am 0500 GMT and close at 5 am 1400 GMT local time. Unofficial results of the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 resulted in a high voter turnout of 86.98 percent as nearly 54 million citizens went to the polls. Nearly 50,000 new voters who recently turned 18 are eligible to vote in the runoff.

The Turkish opposition is also contesting thousands of ballots after the election.

In the first round of the presidential election, President Erdogan had earned 49.52 percent of the vote while Kilicdaroglu received 44.88 percent. Sinan Ogan, a third candidate, gained 5.17 percent, while his opponent, Nationalist politician Sinan Ogan, gained 5.17 percent.