How will foreign votes be protected?

Within the scope of the elections to be held on May 14, by the Supreme Election Board (YSK), ballot box committees were established in 73 countries and 156 foreign representative offices for 3 million 416 thousand 98 voters registered in the foreign electoral roll. Those who cannot vote within the specified time in their country will be able to vote at the customs gates until 14 May. For these voters, 4,671 customs ballot box committees were established at customs. Voting will continue for 24 hours at 46 customs gates.

3 planes will be leased from THY

Following the completion of the voting process at the overseas representations on May 9, 3 planes will be leased from THY to bring the votes cast in countries where Turkish citizens live in Europe to Turkey. The departure point of the leased aircraft will be Istanbul Airport. The planes will follow the route to be determined with the opinion of THY and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the plane, there will be the “Voting Bags Transfer Commission”, which is responsible for accompanying the transportation of the ballot boxes, receiving the ballot boxes from the Ballot Storage and Transportation Boards, supervising their loading on the plane, and delivering the ballot bags to the Overseas District Election Board in Ankara. A “diplomatic courier” to be assigned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a sufficient number of personnel to be assigned by the YSK will be on board the aircraft. The chairman and members of the Vote Bags Transfer Commission, diplomatic courier and other personnel will board the chartered plane at Istanbul Airport. The planes will land at designated points in Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm, London, Cologne, Munich and Lyon. If necessary, the number of flights, designated landing points and routes can be changed.

Diplomatic courier will be transported along

The votes to be brought from the representative offices that are not rented will be carried by “diplomatic couriers”. In this transportation method, the Ballot Storage and Transportation Board will deliver the ballot boxes to diplomatic couriers with a report. Voting bags will be carried in the passenger compartment of the plane, along with a diplomatic courier. In this way, the votes to come to Turkey will be delivered to the Overseas District Election Board under the supervision of law enforcement officers. Political party representatives on the boards will also be able to attend as observers at stages. In missions with a large number of bags such as New York and Nicosia, each diplomatic bag will be prepared as 20 kilograms and additional seats will be purchased as much as the number of diplomatic bags. Votes cast at THY’s non-direct flights will be delivered to the diplomatic courier or the Ballot Box Storage and Transport Board at THY destinations to be determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The diplomatic courier or board will deliver the cargo safely to the representative office. The representative offices to which this procedure will be applied and the destinations of THY to which they will deliver the cargo will be determined by the YSK by taking the opinions of THY and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. All the votes cast abroad will be brought to the Overseas District Election Board in Ankara, and on the evening of May 14, after the completion of the voting process throughout the country, they will be opened and counted simultaneously with the other votes.