Turkey also heads to polls on November 1

Baku. 31 October. REPORT.AZ/ Millions of Turkish citizens are expected to flock to the ballot boxes on November 1 to have a say in the country's political future. Election fever has engulfed the public, which will choose its lawmakers to form the 26th Parliament of the country. There are a total of 56,971,736 voters, 50.7 percent of whom are women. 

Report informs referring to the foreign media, seventy-five million ballots have been printed, over 1 million Turkish citizens abroad have cast their votes for the Sunday's elections, a factor that is believed to be influential in the elections, where every single vote will count. A high turnout is expected as Turkey has already proven its participatory side in previous elections in the country. 

Without a doubt, among others, two parties have taken center stage in the discussions as the country heads to the elections - the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which succeeded in passing the 10 percent election threshold in the June 7 election, and the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which is vying for a single-party government with a simple majority in Parliament. Experts believe a slight drop in support for opposition parties will secure the needed majority for the AK Party. In a televised interview, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the government will take every precaution to ensure fair elections are held on November 1.

He said nobody has the right to alter the nation's will by tampering with ballot boxes, asserting: "We will take any precaution in the context of the authorization given to us by law. No citizen in Turkey should have to worry about this. We will take every kind of measure. If someone threatens the security of the ballot boxes, we will prosecute and punish them to the fullest extent allowed by law."

Several local election boards, which are made up of political party members and senior bureaucrats serving in the area, had earlier decided to relocate some ballot boxes to safer neighborhoods due to security concerns in Cizre, Yüksekova, Ceylanpınar, Şanlıurfa and Silvan – all districts located in the southeast where PKK terrorist activities have intensified over the past few months.