BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 7. About 1.7 million people have attended Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign rally in Istanbul, TurkicWorld reports.

"According to the official data that I have received, about 1.7 million people are participating in the rally. If the people of Istanbul say "yes" to the elections, the issue [of electing a president] can be considered resolved," President Erdogan said during the rally.

Presidential elections are scheduled to take place in Türkiye on 14 May 2023, alongside parliamentary elections. Voters will elect a president for a term of five years. Early elections in the country were postponed due to the deadly earthquake. It is estimated that about 65 million voters will cast their votes in the elections (over 60 million in the country, and some 3.6 million abroad).

The president of Türkiye is directly elected through the two-round system, under which a candidate must obtain a simple majority (more than 50 percent) of the popular vote in order to be elected. If no candidate secures an overall majority outright, then a runoff is held between the two most voted-for candidates from the first round, the winner of which is then declared elected.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been the president of Türkiye since 2014.