A photograph shows ballots depicting the two candidates, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu on the day of the Presidential runoff vote in a polling station in a government school in Istanbul on May 28, 2023. Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP
Evacuees from Turkiye’s earthquake zone travelled back to their home provinces from all corners of the country to vote, reported Al Jazeera’s Andrew Wilks.
In central Anatolia’s Kirikkale, Aziz Duru set off by bus early Sunday for his home province of Malatya to cast his ballot, a journey of 280 miles (450 km).
“I am going because I think I should go as a national duty,” he told the private Ilhas news agency. “I will go today and return after voting in the morning”.
Kirikkale Deputy Governor Ahmet Sait Kurnaz said some 300 earthquake victims had been provided with free transport by disaster agency AFAD to return to their home towns and villages to vote.
Hundreds of thousands of people fled the southern region hit by the February quakes, which killed more than 50,000. As reconstruction is underway, many remain in other parts of Turkiye, living in dormitories, sports halls or with relatives as they wait to return.
