On June 12th Turkey will be holding parliamentary elections.  

At stake in this election:

550 seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi)

Description of government structure:

Chief of State: President Abdullah GUL *

Head of Government: Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ERDOGAN

Assembly: Turkey has a unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi) with 550 seats.

* Candidates must be members of the Grand National Assembly supported by 20 of its members, or nominees by political parties that have attained more than 10 percent of votes in the last legislative election. Candidates must be 40 years of age and have completed higher education.

Description of electoral system:

The President is elected by absolute majority vote through a two-round system to serve a 5-year term.

The Prime Minister is appointed by the President.

In the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkiye Buyuk Millet Meclisi) 550 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** There are 79 MMD corresponding to the provinces. Each party must clear a national threshold of 10 percent and at least one D'Hondt quotient in the district from which it is elected. Additionally, a candidate may be seated only if his party is organized in one-third of districts within each of half of the provinces, and has nominated two candidates for each seat in at least half of provinces.

For more information, please visit IFES Election Guide's Turkey page.

To share your views on the role and experiences of women throughout this election process, please use the comment section below.