Baku, Azerbaijan, August 4
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Some Turkish citizens abroad faced problems during the voting in Turkey's presidential election, Haber7 TV channel quoted the country's Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah Ishler as saying on Aug.4.
He underscored that some Turkish citizens abroad couldn't use their right to vote in the presidential election, however, he didn't specify the reasons.
Previously, Ishler said that the voter turnout in Turkey's presidential election abroad will be lower than expected (less than 50 percent).
He stressed that although all conditions were created for the Turkish citizens abroad to be registered online on the website of Turkey's Central Election Commission, the number of registered voters was less than 10 percent.
The voting in Turkey's presidential election took place in Azerbaijan, Albania, Bahrain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Finland, Georgia, Iran, Ireland, Spain, Kuwait, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Poland, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Oman, Jordan and New Zealand on Aug.3.
Turkish citizens, living in Russia, Canada, Australia, Germany, U.S., Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Romania, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan, voted in the presidential election on July 31.
A total of 2,790,408 Turkish citizens living in 53 countries were to take part in the voting for the presidential election.
The presidential election in Turkey has been scheduled for August 10, 2014. If none of the candidates gains 51 percent of votes in the first round, the second round will take place on August 24.
As distinct from the previous presidential election, the Turkish president will be elected by the people, not by the parliament as of 2014, according to the results of a referendum held in 2007.
Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party nominated Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's candidacy for the presidential election.
Turkish oppositional Republican People's Party (CHP) nominated the former Secretary-General of the OIC Ekmeleddin lIhsanoglu as a candidate for the presidential elections on June 16.