Kemal Kilicdaroglu

Opposition Nation Alliance's presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has described the May 28 runoff voting as a brand new election, calling on the people to get mobilized for bringing a change to the country, and stated he received the messages conveyed by the people to him in the first round of the polls.

Members of Turkey's parliament meet at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, TBMM, in Ankara, 2 January 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/STR

The 600-seat parliament will have 16 political parties thanks to the political alliance system that was introduced by the executive presidential system in 2018.

Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nation Alliance's candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu are both expected to target around 8 million citizens who chose not to vote on May 14 after failing to pass the 50 percent vote threshold in the first ballot and prompting the second round.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on May 18 that his government will continue to stand by the Feb. 6 earthquake victims.

"I hope we will heal our wounds together with state-nation solidarity. We will not leave our earthquake survivors unattended and will continue to stand by them," he tweeted.

The six-party Nation Alliance has met to discuss the strategy they will follow for the second round of the presidential polls in which Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is running as their joint candidate.

Turkey's main opposition party said on Wednesday it had filed complaints over suspected irregularities at thousands of ballot boxes in Sunday's landmark elections, in which President Tayyip Erdogan performed better than expected.

U.S. President Joe Biden is "looking forward to working with whoever" wins Türkiye's knife-edge election, the White House has said on May 15 as it praised the NATO ally for holding a peaceful vote for the runoff.

The Supreme Election Board (YSK) has accepted the objections of the ruling Justice and Development Party and main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to shortening the time period during which Turkish voters in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and Australia will vote for the second round.

Sinan Oğan from the Ata Alliance who has received five percent of votes in the first round of the presidential elections says he will make his decision on who to support in the run-off vote in a few days.

In most Balkan countries excluding Bosnia and Kosovo, where Turkish state influence is stronger, a majority of Turkish expatriate citizens voted for President Erdogan's rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu and for opposition parties at the weekend's elections.