2023 Turkish Presidential Elections (Valve Dystopia)

The 2023 Turkish Presidential Elections took place on June 11, 2023 and the second round took place on July 16. With a voter turnout of 91.1%, it was the election with the highest voter turnout in Turkish history. It was also significant,as it was the end of the 21 year old rule of the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AKP(Ak Parti/Justice and Development Party) as he was beaten in the second round by Mansur Yavaş,candidate of CHP(Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi/The Republican People's Party). CHP also won the majority on the national assembly, a feat that hadn't been achieved since Bülent Ecevit in the 1970's. Out of the 64.492.384 eligible voters, 58.752.562 voted and 56.982.482 of those votes were valid.

Turkish electoral system
The President of Turkey is directly elected through the two-round system, under which a candidate must obtain at least 50%+1 of the popular vote in order to be elected. If no candidate secures an overall majority outright, then a runoff is held between the two most voted-for candidates from the first round, the winner of which is then declared elected. The first direct election to the Turkish presidency was held in 2014, after a referendum in 2007 abolished the previous system under which the head of state was elected by the legislature, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The President of Turkey is subject to term limits, and may serve at most two consecutive five-year terms.

Prospective presidential candidates must be at least 40 years old and must have completed higher education. Any political party that has won 5% of the vote in the previous parliamentary election can put forward a candidate, although parties that have not met this threshold can form alliances and field joint candidates as long as their total vote share exceeds 5%. Independents can run if they collect 100,000 signatures from the electorate. An estimate released in July 2022 predicted that collecting 100,000 signatures to stand for election could exceed ₺20 million (US$2.3 million) in costs, if each individual signature would require certification by a notary.However, the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) announced that signature collection would occur between 4 and 9 February, with voters having to submit their nominations at their local electoral council branch.

Unlike the 2018 elections, this election went to the second round, as incumbent president Erdoğan was becoming more and more unpopular, resulting in his the votes he received being almost halved in just 5 years.

Selection Progress
While AKP and MHP(The Nationalist Movement Party) had part ways and their People's Alliance, the Republican People's Alliance featuring CHP and İYİ Party as well as several smaller parties was intact, it was guaranteed that İYİ Party would make the National Assembly thanks to the popularity of CHP. The former Ankara Municipial Mayor Mansur Yavaş,a highly popular individual thanks to his honest policy while running the municipiality of the capital, as well his decades of experience on politics led to him being chosen as CHP's candidate. Though he did not want to run at first, the support of the people,as well party chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu pushed him to run and ultimately, to win.

The second round and Yavaş's win
Because no candidate was able to obtain 50%+1 of the vote, a second round election was scheduled on July 16. With a turnout of 90.8%, the two candidates (Mansur Yavaş and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) led a race where a Yavaş win occured where Yavaş received 53.4% of the vote. Although the results were heavily challenged by Erdoğan and his AKP, the YSK(Supreme Electoral Council) denied these objections, and Yavaş was ultimately sworn in as president on August 3, 2023. Out of the 64.492.384 eligible voters, 58.559.084 voted and 57.345.791 of those votes were valid. Yavaş received 30.561.529 votes and Erdoğan received 26.784.262 votes.