Everything you need to know about Turkey's elections.

Turkey is all set to go to polls on May 14, the coming Sunday. This will be an instance that has arrived in the 20th year of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rule, and the 100th of the republic of Turkey. Elections of Turkey are located in Europe and Asia, but the entire world is looking forward to it.

Purpose of the election

Turkey has around 600 million voters. The present elections are held to choose both the members of the Parliament and the President. 

The election of the President will be done through direct voting. The candidate who receives more than 50% votes will win the election. In case no candidate is able to touch 50%, a runoff election will be held on the next Sunday of the upcoming voting day. In such a situation, only the highest vote scoring two candidates of the first ballot will be contesting in the elections. The one candidate who then receives more votes will become the President.

Proportional representation is the method through which the 600-member Parliament will be elected. Here, the voters will be voting for the parties and not the candidates. The method designed is such that the seats won by the party would be proportional to the votes cast in favor. 

In order to enter into Parliament, a party requires to win 7% of the vote. In the last term, Erdogan brought forward some revolutionary changes, which made Turkey a Presidential democracy and not a Parliamentary democracy. Additionally, the post of Prime Minister has been done away with.

Issues in the election

The elections are observed as a referendum on some important Erdogan's rule aspects. These aspects include the way he managed the economy and his dodging of the Turkish state from the democratic and secular foundations.

The economy of Turkey is in crisis. From 85 percent in the year 2022, the inflation is now approximately 50 percent. Lira, the country's currency has dropped around 80 percent of its value in the last five years. The recent earthquake has made matters worse. the inflation issues have been linked to Erdogan's denial to increase interest rates on loans. The image of Erdogan as a robust leader is strong on one end, the same image has conferred upon him great responsibility for the government's delay in providing relief in the earthquake crisis.

The next prominent issue to discuss is Turkey's shift to authoritarianism and divided opinions. As per Erdogan, those who say that democracy is dying are actually people who worship the West. On the other hand, he says that he wishes to take Turkey and its patriotic people to great heights. The constituency of middle-class Muslims has agreed on the same till now. However, on the other hand, discontent with his thinking is also growing sharply.