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In pictures: A brief history of Türkiye's electoral democracy

A photograph taken during the 1930 Istanbul municipal election, in which women were allowed to vote for the first time, is one of the earliest visual records of citizens participating in the Turkish democratic process.

May 17, 2023

The sepia-toned photograph captures the historic moment in a posed freeze-frame: an elderly Turkish woman – a slight grin lighting up her face – about to put her paper ballot in the wooden box the size of a traveller’s oversized trunk as several other people, presumably including poll-watchers, look on.

The day was October 21, 1930, when municipal elections were held in Istanbul and for the first time, women were granted the right to be directly involved in the electoral process.

The photo was snapped by an unnamed Associated Press photojournalist. The resulting black-and-white image became one of the earliest records of the then-new republic’s experiment with participatory democracy. It also served as a visual time capsule of the evolving democracy after the country emerged as a modern nation-state after almost five centuries of Ottoman rule.

It would take another four years before Turkish women won universal suffrage. But even then, they were already ahead of their time in comparison to their counterparts in most of the European countries.

In another black-and-white image, which perhaps evokes nostalgia among elderly Turks, voters are seen lining up at Istanbul’s historic pedestrian avenue, Istiklal, during the general elections on October 27, 1957. It was shot by Mario Torrisi, a renowned AP journalist who had photographed the likes of Pope Paul VI and The Beatles.

In the photo, Torrisi captured a slice of the 1950s life in Istanbul — residents in suits and trench coats walking past shops that line the broad stretch of Istiklal. Some of the elegant neo-classical and Renaissance revival buildings seen in the photo still stand to this day. An iconic tram next to a Volkswagen Transporter van first produced in 1950 is also part of the photo.

Türkiye in the 1950s was under the premiership of Adnan Menderes, whose opposition Democrat Party overwhelmingly defeated the Republican People’s Party (CHP) seven years earlier during the parliamentary elections of May 14, 1950.

In the 1957 elections, Menderes would claim his party’s third decisive mandate against the CHP, led by Ismet Inonu. But only three years later, the republic would be rocked by its first coup that forced out Menderes. He was later hanged by the military junta.

Through the ebb and flow of contemporary Turkish history and the complicated evolutions of its political parties, ordinary citizens have remained front and centre.

Many of those pivotal moments are now forever frozen in time thanks to the journalists who bore witness to those historic events.

On May 28, 2023, Turkish voters will return to the polls to cast their ballots for the presidential runoff between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his main opponent, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Here’s a glimpse of the Turkish electoral process in photos down the years.

1935 Istanbul Elections

1938 General Elections

1943 Youth and Sports Day

1950 General Elections

1957 General Elections

1961 General Elections

1977 General Elections

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