ANKARA (Middle East Eye) – More than five million new voters are expected to cast their ballot for the first time in the elections on 14 May in Turkey.
Their participation in the elections and the size of their turnout is set to be an important factor in potentially swinging the outcome of the vote in a tight race between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main secular opposition party, the CHP, or Republican People’s Party.
According to Ozer Sencar, the director of MetroPoll, a Turkish polling organization, 78 percent of voters in the 18-24 age group have expressed their intention to vote, a rate lower than the general population, at above 80 percent.
With the election date only days away, Sencar said “young people in Turkey, regardless of their socio-economic status and political beliefs, have similar worries about their future, particularly related to the prevailing uncertainty.
“The main reasons for this uncertainty are the current state of Turkey’s economy and the quality of education in the country.”
Zeybek, a 21-year-old student from Marmara University studying industrial product design, reflected a common sentiment among her peers and the political polarization that has swept Turkey in recent years.
“I do not want politics and the state to be on my agenda in my daily life, I don’t want to be affected by politics that much,” she said.
Her friend, Kaan Eroglu, 21, a mathematics undergraduate at Bogazici University, called the elections a “crucial turning point for the country”. He is also contemplating leaving Turkey.
“We need some changes for a more livable Turkey. As Turkish people, we’re divided too much and we need to get together again,” said Eroglu.
Turkey’ economic crisis, the quality of education and future job prospects are concerns that are widely shared by young people across the political divide.
Erdogan and Kilicdaroglu have sought to appeal to the youth vote in recent years.
The country’s largest technology event, Teknofest, organized by the government and Selcuk Bayraktar, the man behind Turkey’s drone program and Erdogan’s son-in-law, has sought to draw in young talent from across the country.
It has also become an opportunity for the government to show that it can still generate ideas and events meant to inspire young people in the fields of cutting-edge technology.