Voting-rights profile
Türkiye
Middle East · tr
An executive president elected by absolute majority in up to two rounds, and a 600-seat Grand National Assembly elected by proportional representation with a 7% national threshold; presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
Profile last reviewed July 27, 2026
Türkiye votes at some of the highest rates in the OSCE region, and its election-day machinery — school-room polling stations, party-appointed ballot-board members, public counting — is generally well run. The integrity questions are about the field on which the campaign is fought: ODIHR found the 2023 elections offered genuine alternatives and high participation, but that incumbency advantages, biased media and restrictions on fundamental freedoms tilted the contest.
How voting works today
- Voting age
- 18 and over
- Voter registration
- Automatic
- Identification
- Photo ID required
- Compulsory voting
- Yes
- Postal voting
- Not available
- Early voting
- Not available
- Online voting
- Not available
- Voting from abroad
- Available to all
Voting is compulsory in law but the sanction is weakly enforced. Citizens abroad vote at diplomatic missions and border gates; there is no domestic postal or early voting.
How the franchise changed
Every entry records a change in who could vote, or how — expansions, restrictions and procedural reforms alike.
- 1934Expansion
Women gain full voting rights and eligibility for parliament.
- 1950Reform
First competitive multiparty election brings the opposition Democrat Party to power.
- 2017Reform
Constitutional referendum replaces the parliamentary system with an executive presidency, first used at the 2018 election.
Safeguards on the count
- Ballot type
- Paper ballots
- Post-election audit
- Judicial challenge only
- Election administration
- Independent commission
- Domestic observers
- Yes
- International observers
- Yes
Results can be challenged through objections to ballot-box, district and provincial boards up to the Supreme Election Council (YSK); there is no routine audit or risk-limiting recount.
Worth knowing
- First-round turnout in May 2023 reached 87.0% — exceptionally high by international standards.Turkey's 2023 elections
Elections in the database
Elections
1People
- Party leaderKemal KılıçdaroğluLeader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), 2010–2023
- Head of stateRecep Tayyip ErdoğanPresident of Türkiye since 2014
Sources
- Turkey's 2023 elections— House of Commons Library
- Türkiye's 2023 general elections: ODIHR election observation mission final report— OSCE/ODIHR