A record low turnout marked the presidential vote of Bulgarians in Turkey. Although 78 polling stations were opened for the elections for president and vice president of Bulgaria - about three times more than in the last parliamentary elections - many of them saw almost no voters throughout the day.
The picture in the “Avcilar“ district of Istanbul was indicative. In both polling stations - one with paper ballots, the other with a machine - the commission members remained waiting for voters. Some of those who came said they had traveled kilometers to get to the right place.
„Since the morning I have been going around three schools until I got here“, says Sebahdin Sheahin.75-year-old Hasan Mehmedov Jalilov said he had walked about 5 kilometers to the polling station and that many people had given up along the way. Orhan Ismailov Rustemov also indicated that he had to walk 5 kilometers. He found the address via the Internet and commented that the polling stations should have been located in more central places.
Unclear addresses and difficulties with declarations
Among the problems that voters reported were outdated or difficult-to-find addresses. In „Avcılar“ some of those who came searched for the sections in several schools before finding the right one.
There were also difficulties in filling out the declarations. In some places, the members of the section committees helped voters who did not speak or write Bulgarian well. One of them - Selchuk, said that he used artificial intelligence to translate the text and fill out the document.
„Artificial intelligence helped me translate the Bulgarian words“, Selchuk said.Low attendance was also reported at the section in Firuzköy. Sevinç, who was in charge there in the past, recalled that around 1,000 people used to vote at each polling station.
Election fatigue or lack of interest
The chairman of the Expatriates' Organization in the Avcilar district, Efraim Kamberoğlu, said that he did not remember elections in Turkey with such a small number of voters. According to him, people are tired of holding elections frequently.
“There are elections every 3-4 months and maybe people no longer want to vote”, said Kamberoğlu.
Hülya Alton did not define what happened as an official boycott. According to her, the reasons could be the lack of interest and the absence of a real election campaign. BNT also cited the events and arrests in several municipalities in the previous week as a possible factor.
Given the low turnout, a faster counting of ballots and conclusion of election day in Turkey were expected.
Sources: bntnews.bg, bta.bg