BY HUSEYIN GOKCE
Elections on May 14 will be organized in a different atmosphere in 11 provinces hit by twin quakes on February 6. There are nearly 9.2 million voters in these cities. However, around 1.4 million were estimated to migrate to other provinces after the earthquake. Around 15% of voters in the quake-hit region won’t be able to go to polls on average, according to the calculation of daily EKONOMI. It’s unknown how many of them return to their residential addresses or change their residential addresses and enroll in the directors general of the electoral register. Although provinces such as Adana, Elazig, Osmaniye, Kilis, and Sanliurfa were adversely affected by quakes, an earthquake-driven migration hasn’t been observed that much in these 5 cities. Of the 57.05 million voters, 8.56 million resided in 11 cities hit by twin quakes in the local elections held in 2018. The Supreme Election Council (YSK) hasn’t released the official number of voters. However, the number of people aged above 18 was 62.7 million in 2022, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. But the number of voters is estimated at around 60 million as prisoners and some citizens with disabilities can’t vote.
