Turkish Voters Go to Polls in Local Elections

Voting started at 7 am local time and will continue through 4 pm in 32 eastern provinces and in the remaining provinces, polling stations will open at 8 am and close at 5 pm, Anadolu Agency reported.

Some 1.32 million young people are voting for the first time. With candidates from 34 political parties competing, more than 206,000 polling stations have been set up nationwide.

A total of 81 provincial, 973 district, and 390 township mayors along with 50,336 mukhtars, as well as provincial general assembly and municipal council membership elections will be elected.

Voters living in larger cities are casting votes for metropolitan municipality mayor, municipality mayor, municipal council membership, as well as mukhtars and elder council. Those cities are Adana, Ankara, Antalya, Aydin, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Erzurum, Eskisehir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Istanbul, Izmir, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Malatya, Manisa, Mardin, Mersin, Mugla, Ordu, Sakarya, Samsun, Sanliurfa, Tekirdag, Trabzon and Van.

In other provinces, voters are casting their votes for provincial council membership, municipal mayor, municipal council membership, mukhtars and elder council. In villages, votes will be cast for provincial council membership, mukhtars and elder council.