Türkiye holds municipal elections across 81 provinces on Sunday March 31, with President Recep
On Sunday, polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. in eastern provinces and from 8am to 5pm in the rest of the country.
Initial results are expected by 10pm on Sunday.
Polls show incumbent Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate, former minister Murat Kurum, in a close race in Istanbul, a city of 16 million, where Erdoğan made his name as mayor in the 1990s.
The incumbent opposition mayor leads in the capital Ankara.
Thirty-four political parties will vie for votes in 81 provinces.
More than 61 million people are eligible to vote, and 1 million young voters will cast their ballots for the first time in this election. More than 50% of the voters are women, while men make up 49.1% of the electorate, according to the statistics.
More than 3.3 million of voters are aged 75 and above.
Most of the electorate is in 30 big cities, while more than 13.5 million voters will cast their ballots in 51 other cities.
The municipal elections are poised to be a critical test for the opposition parties, which were united under a coalition in 2019 that only fell apart after last May’s defeat in general elections.
Despite new management, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) faces dwindling odds as its allies fielded their own candidates.