There are more than 64 million eligible voters in Turkey, including more than six million first-time voters.

There are more than six million first-time voters in the high-stakes elections, and the number of Turks abroad who could vote until May 9 crossed 3.4 million.

Here’s everything you need to know about how the electoral system works:

What kind of political system does Turkey have?

• Turkey transitioned from a parliamentary to a presidential system in July 2018, a month after Erdogan won the presidential election.
• The powers of the president were broadened after a 2017 referendum approving the change to an executive presidency.
• The post of prime minister was abolished and the president also became the head of government.
• In the new system, voters elect the president directly.

How often are elections held?

• Turkey holds simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections every five years.
• The 2023 polls, initially scheduled for June 18, were brought forward to May 14.

Who can run for president?

• A potential candidate must be a Turkish citizen, at least 40 years old and have a bachelor’s degree.
• Candidates are nominated by parties that received at least 5 percent of votes in the previous parliamentary polls or have 20 seats in parliament.
• A presidential hopeful could also seek a nomination by collecting 100,000 signatures of support from citizens.

How does a presidential candidate win?

• A candidate needs more than 50 percent of votes in the first round to win outright.
• If no one crosses the 50-percent mark, the top two candidates will go head to head in a run-off two weeks later, with this year’s vote set for May 28.

How do the parliamentary elections work?

• Elections for the 600 members of the National Assembly, as the Turkish parliament is known, are carried out through a system of proportional representation, so Turks vote for party lists rather than candidates and the seat numbers correspond to votes cast per party rather than alliances.
• The 600 members represent 87 electoral districts in 81 provinces.
• Electoral districts are allocated parliamentary seats in proportion to their population.
• To enter parliament, a party needs to get 7 percent of the vote, or be part of an alliance that does.
• Candidates must be at least 18 years old.
• To obtain a parliamentary majority, a party or alliance must hold more than half, or 301, of the seats.

Turkey’s current parliament

• Erdogan’s Adalet ve Kalkınma Party (Justice and Development, AK) has 285 seats.
• The AK Party’s ally, the far-right Milliyetçi Hareket Party (Nationalist Movement, MHP), has 48.
• The main opposition, centre-left Cumhuriyet Halk Party (Republican People’s Party, CHP) has 134 MPs.
• The CHP’s centre-right ally, the Iyi Party (Good) has 36 legislators.
• The pro-Kurdish Halkların Demokratik Party (People’s Democratic Party, HDP) has 56 lawmakers.

What happened in 2022?

• In April 2022, the election threshold was reduced from 10 percent to 7 percent after a law was passed by parliament.
• The law changed the way seats are distributed among member parties of an alliance.
• Parliamentary seats were previously allocated according to the total votes received by an alliance. Now, the seats will be allocated according to the votes that a party receives individually.
• Alliances are therefore used so that parties can surpass the election threshold. This also pits parties within an alliance against one another.
• The AK Party is part of the Cumhur İttifakı (People’s Alliance) whose parties are fighting the election separately, while the CHP is part of the six-party Millet İttifakı (Nation Alliance).