Voters start casting ballots for Turkey's presidential runoff race

Millions of Turkish voters on Sunday started heading to the polls across the country as the nation's first-ever presidential runoff election began.

More than 64.1 million people are registered to vote, including over 1.92 million who have already cast their ballots at overseas polling stations.

A total of 191,885 ballot boxes have been set up for voters in the country.

Voters will choose between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is seeking reelection, and main opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Overseas voting was held until May 24. As for customs gates, voters can cast their ballots until domestic polling stations close on Sunday at 5 p.m. local time (2 p.m. GMT).

Millions of voters went to the polls on May 14 to elect the country's president and members of the 600-seat Parliament.

Erdoğan’s People’s Alliance won a majority against the opposition's six-party Nation Alliance in Parliament.

However, the presidential race will be decided in Sunday’s runoff since no candidate could get the required 50% in the first round, though Erdoğan was in the lead.

Erdoğan narrowly missed a chance to win the first round by garnering more than 49% of the vote, paving the way for a runoff.

The runoff is the first since Turkey switched to an executive presidency, which was fully implemented after Erdoğan’s election victory in 2018, after a 2017 referendum that approved changes to the system.