AP PHOTOS: In quake-devastated Turkey, voting in presidential election is no simple task

1 year ago 18
For many voters from southern Turkey, casting ballots in Sunday’s presidential and parliamentary elections will be an uphill battle. The elections are taking place just three months after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake — the deadliest quake in the country’s modern history — struck the region, killing more than 50,000 people and leaving millions of others homeless and living in temporary accommodation — including tents. Of the estimated 3 million people that have left the quake zone, only 133,000 have registered to vote at their new locations, officials say. Political parties and nongovernmental organizations plan to bus voters back to their hometowns to allow them to vote, which is no easy task. “How will we transport 100,000 or 150,000 people to this city in one day?" said Akin Parlakyildiz, a local opposition party official in Antakya, the Hatay province city that suffered the worst devastation. "How will these people be transported through the narrow, inadequate roads? Where will...
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