The local elections in Turkey, where nearly 53 million voters is casting votes in 195 thousand ballot boxes in the whole country since the early hours of the morning, turned into a “people’s struggle against cheating

The local elections in Turkey, where nearly 53 million voters is casting votes in 195 thousand ballot boxes in the whole country since the early hours of the morning, turned into a “people’s struggle against cheating. Where participation rate seems to catch a historical record, elections turned into a citizens’ mobilisation against fraud in ballot boxes.

In this first election after the June Revolt in 2013 where the citizens’ trust towards the ruling JDP government about the security and honesty of the elections is at a historical minimum, various citizen networks in addition to the opposition parties and democratic organisations’ networks had been established in order to provide “independent elections watch” and prevent cheating.

Until this moment, the death toll rises in Hatay and Şanlıurfa, in Turkey’s southeast, over local administrative chief elections, 8 dead, 18 wounded.

Femen Turkey protested in Üsküdar, İstanbul, in the ballot where Prime Minister Erdogan would cast his vote, just few minutes before, with the slogan “Ban Erdogan” written on their bare chests. Femen Turkey members are reported to be beaten and detained.

Armed threat and fraud in the eastern provinces

While at 16.00 o’clock voting in 32 Eastern provinces ended, nearly 400 cases of fraud and cheating has been in the whole country. Only Istanbul Bar worked with more than 2000 lawyers in order to help citizen’s objections and applications about fraud and cheating.

Fraud and armed threat was especially widespread in Urfa and Bitlis provinces in the eastern part of the country. According to Kurdish news agencies such as ANF and jiyan.org, in many other provinces like Erzurum, Iğdır schools where the ballot boxes were put were surrounded either by soldiers, police forces or paramilitary village guards and forced the citizens to open voting. In Iğdır one school was closed by the soldiers.

In Van, Kalecik, two journalists Kayser Tekin (DİHA) ve Hicret Çiftçi (JİNHA) were taken under custody for a short time, for shooting the pictures of police forces waiting in front of the election centre. In Urfa, policemen stayed in every class room where the voting was continuing and again in Van, election observers of JDP injured the election observer of PDP (Peace and Democracy Party) with knife.

In Mardin, Midyat, fake vote ballots previously stamped in favour of JDP were busted by the other parties’ observers. In Siirt a foreign election observers group from of 63 people coming from Sweden were prevented by police forces to attain the voting process. In Bitlis, and many other eastern provinces electricity was cut during the election process and in Gaziantep during the ballot counting. PDP Hakkari Deputy Adil Zozani stated they will apply to the public prosecutor for the special operation polices shooting at the air during the vote casting.

Citizens mobilized against fraud in major cities

Voting officially ended at 18.00 o’clock in the majority of the provinces other than the eastern cities. While more than 756 cases of fraud were reported in the whole country, at the https://2014secim.crowdmap.com address, reported fraud cases for whole Turkey were mapped and classified. According to this, various types of fraud were tried by the JDP supporters in order to change the election results: fraud in ballots and stamps by using previously stamped ballots or using improper stamps; ballots thrown to waste basket; threats for open voting; using imaginary (dead) voter names for voting or double voting by using other people’s names; bringing people who cannot vote to ballot boxes; preventing people from voting; using cameras for proving the kind of voting; susceptible acts of the election ballot box chair persons; electricity cuts; physical or oral insults against opposition parties’ supporters.

After the voting ended and people rushed once more to the ballot boxes in order to observe the counting process, this time news about prevention of the constitutional rights of the citizens started wide. In various districts of Istanbul and Ankara, citizens were prevented either by police or by the other authorities at the election centers from entering into election centers.

While in many centers tension between citizens and election authorities continue over re-counting and other fraud procedures, police started patrolling in Taksim İstiklal Avenue as a security measure for the opposition parties celebrations or protests in Taksim Square.

Record fraud rate: 1418 cases

Just one hour later the voting process ended, during counting, in numerous cases police or other authorities are reported to prevent citizens who tried to inspect vote counting. The number of the cases during whole day citizens appealed for fraud minutes reached 1418. In Istanbul and Ankara, in schools in Esenyurt, Büyükçekmece, Bakırköy, Merter, Moda, Kadıköy, Pendik, Sancaktepe, Sarıyer, Keçiören, Beylikdüzü citizens were prevented to enter schools, and in Cihangir citizens could enter the building by breaking the doors.

JDP deputy resigns

JDP Kayseri deputy Ahmet Öksüzkaya resigns from his party after the end of the voting.

Sendika.Org