Turkish expatriates will vote between 6-9 April at a hotel and conference centre near Hammersmith tube station
Turkish expatriates in the UK will be voting in Hammersmith, not Olympia, when polls open for the executive presidency referendum next month.
The Novotel London West, a hotel and exhibition centre with capacity for up to 2,000 delegates, will be hired over four days between Thursday 6 and Sunday 9 April.
Around 80,000 registered Turkish citizens in the UK will be eligible to vote at the Novotel in London and at the consulate building in Edinburgh.
The information was announced on Friday morning by Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Board (YSK), the body that runs elections in the country.
Sources told Haber newspaper that the Olympia Conference Centre in London may not have been available at short notice, given the date of the referendum was only confirmed in February.
Better Tube connections
The Olympia centre had been criticised in the community for its poor transport connections: the nearest station, Olympia, is only accessible by boarding a special shuttle train from Earl’s Court.
The Novotel, however, is next to Hammersmith station and can be reached using the London Underground District, Hammersmith & City or Piccadilly lines.
Voters in Turkey will go to the polls on Sunday 16 April, a week after expatriate voters, to decide whether to grant sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Turkish government says the proposals are needed to streamline the decision-making process, but critics say they concentrate too much power in the hands of one man – Mr Erdoğan.
There are around three million Turkish expatriates registered to vote worldwide.
