Turkey to do re-vote in northeastern district
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkey’s election body announced they will redo the election in Yusufeli district, Artvin province in the country’s northeast where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s candidate leads the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) with just three votes, reported Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
The Turkish Supreme Election Council (YSK) made the decision after CHP challenged the result. The do-over vote will be held on June 2.
According to unofficial results from Anadolu, CHP won in seven of Artvin’s nine districts while the AKP took the remaining two with a slim margin.
This is the only re-vote the YSK has agreed to so far, despite calls from multiple parties for new elections to take place in hotly contested areas, including a request from AKP for a new vote in Istanbul. The YSK has conducted many recounts in Istanbul on AKP’s request, but has so far not agreed to authorize a new vote.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP lost three key cities – Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir – to CHP per unofficial results, while taking some significant provinces – such as Agri and Sirnak – from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the east.
Races across the country were tight and parties from all sides submitted requests for recounts. The impartiality of the electoral authority was questioned after it approved most recount requests from the ruling parties and few from the opposition.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said late on Wednesday that seven of their winning candidates were denied official recognition and accused YSK of becoming a “tool for the AKP that has acted against the will of voters.”
The YSK decided not to certify winners who had previously been removed from their posts during the state of emergency, Cumhurriyet newspaper reported. The decision mainly affects HDP candidates. Tens of HDP mayors had been removed in 2016 and replaced with pro-government trustees.
The party questioned why the candidacies of their members were accepted just to have them deemed ineligible after winning the poll.
Responding to accusations his party was putting pressure on the YSK, AKP spokesperson Omer Celik said they too have had requests refused by the election body.
The opposition “said that we have threatened and pressured the YSK, compelling them to do recounts. Now, our complaint has been denied by the YSK,” he told journalists in a press conference on Wednesday after the YSK rejected AKP complaints from Ankara.
Celik claimed that all their complaints have been “legal” and said they have accepted all of YSK’s decisions because “we respect the people’s will.”
While parties jostle for the top positions, HDP in Mus’ Rustemgedik district refused a YSK decision that gave their candidate the mayoralty after the winning CHP’s candidate secured the most votes but was ruled ineligible because of the existence of a criminal record.
“The YSK cannot reject those chosen by the people due to a criminal record. There should be a re-vote here,” HDP tweeted.
Earlier in the day, YSK rejected HDP’s request for a re-vote in in Mus province’s Malazgirt district “where the difference is only three votes” between HDP and AKP, the party stated.