Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu

Ballot boxes have been reestablished at Istanbul Airport and customs gates to allow voters living abroad to cast their ballots in the second round of the Turkish presidential election.

The watchdog placed more than 4,600 polling stations at 46 border gates.

Tayyip Erdogan's challenger in Turkey's presidential race has sharpened his tone on migrants on Thursday, vowing to send all migrants back to their countries once elected in a May 28 runoff vote.

Turkish presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, addresses a press conference at CHP's headquarters in Ankara, 18 May 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/NECATI SAVAS

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.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main opponent showed after a brief silence the new tone of the run-off campaign. In a video shared on Twitter, he accused the head of state of "scratching at the door" of Russia and "orienting" towards it, but also that under his watch the government had allowed "10 million illegal migrants" into the country.

But Kılıçdaroğlu faces a higher bar much in the second round. Erdoğan is only short of around 550,000 votes to win, if the turnout remains at around 88.92 per cent, as was the case in the first round. Kılıçdaroğlu needs to acquire at least 2.7 million more votes.

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.