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 Turkey portal |
Elections in Turkey are held for six functions ofgovernment:presidential elections (national),parliamentary elections (national),municipality mayors (local),district mayors (local),provincial ormunicipal council members (local) andmuhtars (local). Apart fromelections,referendums are also held occasionally.
Theparliamentary elections are held every five years. TheParliament (Meclis) has 600 members, elected for a five-year term by a system based onclosed listproportional representation according to theD'Hondt method. Political parties are subject to anelectoral threshold of 7%. Smaller parties can avoid the electoral threshold by forming analliance with bigger parties, in which it is sufficient that total votes of the alliance passes the 7%.Independent candidates are not subject toelectoral threshold.
Thepresidential elections are held every five years. Thepresident 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 theParliament. In this case, the president can be re-elected for a third term.
To put forward a referendum regardingconstitutional amendments, asupermajority (three fifths of the votes) in the parliament is required first. These kinds of referendums are binding.
Turkey has amulti-party system, with two or three strongparties and often a fourth party that is electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has mainly been dominated byconservative parties. Even the rulingJustice and Development Party (AKP) tends to identify itself with the "tradition" ofDemocrat Party (DP). While on the left side of the spectrum, parties likeRepublican People's Party (CHP),Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) andDemocratic Left Party (DSP) have enjoyed the largest electoral success.
Theconstitutional referendum of 2017 enhanced the powers of the president, and since 2018, the focus has shifted from parliamentary to the presidential elections.[1]
| 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) |
The following sections give list of key results.[2]
At first,Turkey had a unicameral legislature, with the main chamber being theGrand National Assembly of Turkey. This lasted until 1961, when the newConstitution of 1961 replaced the previous unicameral (one house) system with abicameral (two house) one. TheGrand National Assembly was downgraded to the position of the lower house whilst the newly foundedSenate of the Republic became the upper house. However, theconstitution 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 |
| 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 |
TheTurkish administrative system defines three different district types for local elections:villages,cities andmetropolitan cities. The difference between cities and metropolitan cities derives from the size of thepopulation. 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]
People living inmetropolitan cities:
| People living incities:
| People living invillages:
|
This is a summary of the past local elections:
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.
| 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 |
Thevoter 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 wherecompulsory 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]
| 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% |
| Presidential elections | |
|---|---|
| Parliamentary elections | |
| Local elections | |
| Senate elections | |
| Referendums | |
See also:Elections in the Ottoman Empire | |
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