REFERENDUM 2010

50 Million Voters Decide

Turkey is going to the ballot on 12 September to vote on the Constitutional Reform Package. Electoral constituencies in eastern provinces close at 4.00 pm, and at 5.00 am in the rest of the country. More than 60 percent of the electorate is younger than 44 years and 40 percent live in 8 metropolises.

Ertuğrul Kürkçü

On Sunday (12 September), a total of 49,446,269 Turkish people can vote on the Constitutional Reform Package at 151,549 ballot boxes. 8,829,393 voters live in Istanbul, 3,237446 people can go to the ballot boxes in the capital Ankara and an electorate of 2,794,729 people can give their votes in Izmir.

With 25,060,948 voters the female electorate is slightly bigger than the number of male voters with 24,385,321.

Another 2,556,033 people can vote abroad, 1,351,083 of them men and 1,204,501 women.

40 percent of the electorate is living in the eight Turkish cities accommodating more than 1 million inhabitants, i.e. Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Adana and Mersin on the eastern tip of the Mediterranean Sea, Bursa on the south-eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara, Konya in central Anatolia and Kocaeli east of Istanbul.

60 percent of all voters are between 18 and 44 years old.

The ballot boxes are open from 7.00 am to 4.00 pm in the provinces of Adıyaman, Ağrı, Artvin, Bingöl, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzincan, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Giresun, Gümüşhane, Hakkari, Kars, Malatya, Kahramanmaraş, Mardin, Muş, Ordu, Rize, Siirt, Sivas, Trabzon, Tunceli, Şanlıurfa, Van, Bayburt, Batman, Şırnak, Ardahan, Iğdır and Kilis in eastern Turkey and on the Black Sea coast.

In the remaining provinces, the ballot boxes are open from 8.00 am to 5 pm.

According to the law, the ballot boxes in all provinces have to be opened from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. However, the Supreme Election Committee (YSK) holds the authority to change these times. (EK/VK)