Overseas Voters To Get More Time, But Not Enough To Overhaul Erdoğan

Ragıp Soylu at Middle East Eye: "Turkish Supreme Election Board approved the opposition’s request, now citizens in UK, US, Canada Australia can cast their votes for four days between 20-24 May." The Turkish diaspora in these four countries voted strongly for opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the presidential election, but this extension will not be enough to overhaul President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's lead.

• The Turkish diaspora in these nations is roughly as follows: UK-150,000 (as of 2011, UK Home Office), US-350,000 (Turkish Coalition of America), Canada-35,270 (Statistics Canada), Australia-32,178 (Department of Home Affairs). This totals to 567,448. Erdoğan won 27,088,360 votes to Kılıçdaroğlu's 24,568,196.
• This means that even if every single Turkish national in those four countries voted for Kılıçdaroğlu, he would still trail Erdoğan by nearly two million votes.
• Moreover, there are still votes to come in from countries such as Germany and France, both of which have larger communities of Turkish nationals and voted heavily for Erdoğan.
• According to data from NTV, Kılıçdaroğlu has so far won the support of:
  • 77.9% of voters in Edinburgh, Scotland; 74.9% in Leicester, England; 80.0% in London, England; 70.4% in Manchester, England
  • 56.4% in Long Island, NY; 91.2% in Los Angeles, CA; 87.8% in Miami, FL; 81.9% in New York, NY; 81.0% in Chigago, IL; 44.7% in South Jersey, NJ (below Erdoğan's 51.9%); 84.1% in Washington, D.C.m,
  • 66.8% in Montreal, Que; 80.2% in Ottawa, Ont; 81.4% in Toronto, Ont; 87.6% in Vancouver, BC
  • 74.4% in Canberra, ACT; 47.7% in Melbourne, Vic (below Erdoğan's 40.7%); 61.1% in Sydney, NSW