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DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - In Turkey's May 14, parliamentary and presidential elections, more than one million voters did not vote in the Kurdish areas of the southernmost part of the country.
Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections were held on May 14, in which Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s People’s Alliance garnered most of the parliamentary seats, however, he came short of winning the presidential race.
Erdogan gained 49.52 percent of the votes, followed by Kemal Kilicdaroglu who gained 44.88 percent, prompting the electoral commission to announce a second round run-off on May 28.
Now, both the Kurdish-dominated Green Left Party and the ruling AK Party are racing against time to get as many people to the ballots in the second run-off on May 28 as possible, to vote for their favorite candidates, Kilicdaroglu and Erdogan, respectively.
On May 14, the voter turnout reached only 20 percent in the predominantly Kurdish provinces of Van, Culemerg, Agiri, and many other Kurdish cities. In Diyarbakır, the turnout fell by 2 percent compared to the 2018 election, and at the time had reached 84 percent.
The Green Left Party points out that in the first round, more than a million Kurds did not go to the polls in their cities, and they say that they will do whatever they can to make the Republican Alliance candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan lose.
On the other hand, the fan base and officials of the AK Party think differently from the Green Left Party, promising they would also do whatever they could for Erdogan's success. According to them, if the candidate of the Nation Alliance Kilicdaroglu wins, the Kurds will suffer a big defeat.
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