Elections in Turkey are held for six functions of

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

: presidential elections (national), parliamentary elections (national), municipality mayors (local), district mayors (local), provincial or municipal council members (local) and muhtars (local). Apart from

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

s, referendums are also held occasionally. The parliamentary elections are held every five years. The

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

(''Meclis'') has 600 members, elected for a five-year term by a system based on closed list

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

according to the

D'Hondt method The D'Hondt method, also called the Jefferson method or the greatest divisors method, is an apportionment method for allocating seats in parliaments among federal states, or in proportional representation among political parties. It belongs to ...

. Political parties are subject to an

electoral threshold The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature. This limit can operate in various ...

of 7%. Smaller parties can avoid the electoral threshold by forming an

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

with bigger parties, in which it is sufficient that total votes of the alliance passes the 7%. Independent candidates are not subject to

. The presidential elections are held every five years. The president is elected for a term of office of five years and is eligible for one re-election. There is an exception when a president's second term ends prematurely through a decision of the

. In this case, the president can be re-elected for a third term. To put forward a referendum regarding

constitutional amendment A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly alt ...

s, a

supermajority A supermajority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority rules in a democracy can help to prevent a majority from eroding fun ...

(three fifths of the votes) in the parliament is required first. These kinds of referendums are binding. Turkey has a

multi-party system In political science, a multi-party system is a political system where more than two meaningfully-distinct political parties regularly run for office and win elections. Multi-party systems tend to be more common in countries using proportional ...

, with two or three strong parties and often a fourth party that is electorally successful. Since 1950, parliamentary politics has mainly been dominated by

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

parties. Even the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) tends to identify itself with the "tradition" of Democrat Party (DP). While on the left side of the spectrum, parties like

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP), Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) and Democratic Left Party (DSP) have enjoyed the largest electoral success. The constitutional referendum of 2017 enhanced the powers of the president, and since 2018, the focus has shifted from parliamentary to the presidential elections.

Schedule

* Bold: latest elections, ''italic'': upcoming elections

List of elections

Presidential elections

Parliamentary elections

The following sections give list of key results. At first,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

had a unicameral legislature, with the main chamber being the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

. This lasted until 1961, when the new Constitution of 1961 replaced the previous unicameral (one house) system with a

bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature that is divided into two separate Deliberative assembly, assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate ...

(two house) one. The Grand National Assembly was downgraded to the position of the lower house whilst the newly founded Senate of the Republic became the upper house. However, the constitution of 1982 abolished the Senate and Turkey once again adopted a unicameral system.

Senate elections 1961–80

Local elections

The Turkish administrative system defines three different district types for local elections: villages,

cities A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

and metropolitan cities. The difference between cities and metropolitan cities derives from the size of the

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

. Cities with more than 750,000 residents are labeled as metropolitan cities while the rest are simply called cities. There are 31 metropolitan cities and 50 cities across Turkey, and voters in both will have a total of four votes. Citizens have the opportunity to vote for the following offices, depending on the type of area they reside: People living in metropolitan cities: * Metropolitan municipality mayor * District mayor * Municipal council members * Muhtar People living in

: * Mayor * Municipal council members * Provincial assembly members * Muhtar People living in villages: * Provincial assembly members * Muhtar This is a summary of the past local elections: * 1930 Turkish local elections ** CHP: 502 municipalities ** SCF: 40 municipalities * 1934 Turkish local elections * 1938 Turkish local elections * 1942 Turkish local elections * 1946 Turkish local elections ** CHP: 54.65% ** DP: 43.35% * 1950 Turkish local elections – September 3, 1950 ** DP: 560 municipalities ** CHP: 40 municipalities * 1955 Turkish local elections * 1963 Turkish local elections – November 17, 1963 ** AP: 45.48% ** CHP: 36.22% ** YTP: 6.51% ** MP: 3.09% ** CKMP: 3.06% ** TİP: 0.4% ** ...others * 1968 Turkish local elections – June 2, 1968 ** AP: 49.06% ** CHP: 27.9% ** GP: 6.62% ** MP: 3.5% ** TİP: 2.72% ** BP: 1.64% ** ...others * 1973 Turkish local elections – December 9, 1973 ** CHP: 37.09% ** AP: 32.32% ** DP: 10.75% ** MSP: 6.2% ** CGP: 2.9% ** MHP: 1.33% ** ...others * 1977 Turkish local elections – December 11, 1977 ** CHP: 41.73% ** AP: 37.1% ** MSP: 6.91% ** MHP: 6.62% ** DP: 1.0% ** ...others * 1984 Turkish local elections – March 25, 1984 ** ANAP: 41.52% ** SODEP: 23.35% ** DYP: 13.25% ** HP: 8.76% ** MDP: 7.09% ** RP: 4.4% ** Independent: 1.63% * 1989 Turkish local elections – March 26, 1989 ** SHP: 28.69% ** DYP: 25.13% ** ANAP: 21.8% ** RP: 9.8% ** DSP: 9.03% ** MHP: 4.14% ** ...others * 1994 Turkish local elections – March 27, 1994 ** DYP: 21.41% ** ANAP: 21.09% ** RP: 19.14% ** SHP: 13.53% ** DSP: 8.75% ** MHP: 7.95% ** CHP: 4.61% ** ...others * 1999 Turkish local elections – April 18, 1999 ** DSP: 18.7% ** MHP: 17.17% ** FP: 16.48% ** ANAP: 15.03% ** DYP: 13.21% ** CHP: 11.08% ** ...others * 2004 Turkish local elections – March 28, 2004 ** AKP: 41.6% ** CHP: 18.2% ** MHP: 10.4% ** DYP: 9.9% * 2009 Turkish local elections – March 22, 2009 ** AKP: 38.99% ** CHP: 23.23% ** MHP: 16.13% ** ...others * 2014 Turkish local elections – March 30, 2014 ** AKP: 43.31% ** CHP: 25.59% ** MHP: 17.63% ** ...others * 2019 Turkish local elections – March 31, 2019 ** AKP: 44.32% ** CHP: 30.10% ** İYİ: 7.45% ** ...others * 2024 Turkish local elections - March 31, 2024 ** CHP: 37.77% ** AKP: 35.49% ** YRP: 6.19% ** ...others

By-elections

If too many seats become vacant in the parliament or if elections in a district is not properly conducted, then a by-election is required to take place. * 1936 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1945 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1947 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1948 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1949 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1951 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1966 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1968 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1975 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1979 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 1986 Turkish parliamentary by-elections * 2003 Turkish parliamentary by-elections

Referendums

Voter turnout

The

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

for the average of 18 parliamentary election is 81.4%; of the local elections is 78.7% and of the referendums is 83.1%. Turkey relatively has a high voter turnout rate comparing to modern democracies. The participation rate in Turkey is also higher than the participation rates in countries where

compulsory voting Compulsory voting, also called universal civic duty voting or mandatory voting, is the requirement that registered voters participate in an election. As of January 2023, 21 countries have compulsory voting laws. Law enforcement in those countries ...

is loosely applied. With the exception of 1960–1970, voter turnout rate in Turkey is above the world average from 1950 to the present in Turkey.

References

External links

Elections in Turkey - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)

Supreme Election Council
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elections In Turkey