On Sunday, Turkey goes to the polls to elect a new government - the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi).

At Kalkan Turkish Local News, we generally steer clear of politics, but anyone visiting Kalkan at the moment can't fail to observe the forthcoming election.

There is bunting on buildings and hanging across the streets - check out the KTLN town webcam, showing the town centre roundabout.

Local activists are organising rallies and driving round in vans, blasting out stirring, patriotic music, at serious decibel levels.  And it's going to get livelier and noisier over the last few days.

On Sunday, Turkish citizens in Kalkan, will go to the school building to vote.  It is their lawful duty to do so - if they don't they can be fined. 

Foreign residents do not get a vote - only Turkish citizens.

The law also says that they must vote without the influence of alcohol, which is why it is illegal to sell or consume alcohol on polling day.

Strictly speaking, nobody is permitted to drink alcohol this Sunday, however at previous elections, foreigners in tourist locations, have been able to have a drink.

Parliamentary elections take place every four years - the last time was on 22nd July 2007. 

On that occasion, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) got around 60% of the 550 seats in parliament.  The Republican People's Party (CHP) achieved around 18% of seats, with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) getting nearly 13% of seats.  These are the three main parties in contention this time.

The mathematicians amongst you will have already worked out that any party obtaining 276 seats, will have an outright majority in parliament.

The parliament, commonly referred to as the 'Meclis', is comprised of 85 electoral districts, one of which is Antalya.  People in Kalkan will be voting for 14 MPs from the Antalya region, to represent them. 

They will be voting for their preferred party, not for an individual, under a voting system known as 'party-list proportional representation.

If you want to read more about the elections, try Today's Zaman and Hurriyet Daily News online.

Kalkan Turkish Local News - right up your sokak.