Fears of free and fair elections taking place in Turkey are rising as election date looms and the governing Justice and Development (AKP) is accused of not promoting a peaceful election environment.
The elections will take place on March 31, 2019.
One of the notable critics of AKP has been the opposition party, People’s Democracy Party (HDP), which has pointed out several issues like fraudulent voter rolls.
Several leaders of the HDP have been targeted, harassed and imprisoned as the AKP is continuously accused of wanting to capture many elected mayoral municipalities of HDP, some governed by the trustees appointed by AKP.
The HDP has determined its election slogan as ‘Ya me ye’ (it is ours).
The Kurdish election song and its clip has been publicly announced by party officials. According to the news given by the Mesopotamia Agency, HDP released the song at Ayaz Elegance Conference Hall in Kayapınar district of Diyarbakır, about 1140 km east from İstanbul.
Strana me ya hilbijartinê ya Kurdî: Kuçe û kolan ya me ye, qad û bajar ya me ye, rabin wa dem hatiye, HDP partiya me ye! pic.twitter.com/p92r3RNUEL
— HDP (@HDPgenelmerkezi) January 24, 2019
Slogans tell a story – yearning for a free Turkey
Slogans in Kurmanji (Kurdish), Sorani, Turkish, Armenian and Arabic gave onlookers how the HDP attributed the meaning of the placards and embracing other languages. The slogans on the placards read(in English);
– Local authorities will be freed with women. Municipalities are ours
– Unity Day is ours
– Afrin is a Kurdish soil, belong to nations and it’s ours
– We don’t give. We will get
– Freedom against isolation
– Free will is ours against gasping
– Dungeon resistance is ours
– The success of women is ours
– Together but not alone, the administrations are ours
– Freedom of women is the freedom of ours
– Let’s hand in hand, Arian lands is ours
– Women say enough anymore, freedom is ours
– Democracy against dictatorship is ours
– We don’t give, Municipalities are ours
– Lobor against explotation is ours
– Freewill against trustees is ours
HDP goes to elections with undue pressure on the party
Both in Eastern and Western provinces, particularly in the mayoral municipalities which were transferred to trustees by the government, HDP will nominate candidates there.
Nominees will be determined by tendency surveys. In some provinces, the nominees will be determined in accordance with applications of the candidates, well-known candidates or the candidates from dismissed mayors.
Turkey, Western Europe’s “Hybrid Regime”
According to the latest Democracy Index, published by The Economist Intelligence Unit, Turkey ranks the worst in the Western Europe region, where EIU places Turkey.
According to the annual report, the Western Europe region has the second-highest regional score, with 14 “full democracies”, six “flawed democracies”, and one “hybrid regime” (Turkey).
More claims of fake voters as elections loom in Turkey
A senior MP of the pro-Kurdish HDP made startling claims about hundreds of ‘imaginary’ voters who are registered in the same apartment in the city of Siirt, a Kurdish-majority city located eastern Turkey.
Meral Danis Bestas, HDP MP, alleged three apartments in the same building have hundreds of voters registered using those apartments as their addresses.
She made these allegations during her speech at a recent parliamentary assembly: “Currently votes are not being stolen, it is the voters that are being stolen. They are effacing voters.”
She claimed records of more 6 000 voters have been erased. Bestas went on to further say “instead of the erased ones, government enlists new ‘imaginary voters’ that are not even residing in the city.
Voter numbers to lie in favour of AKP
More than 3 000 law enforcement officers have reportedly been relocated to the Halfeti district, Turkey’s south-eastern Kurdish-majority city Sanliurfa, before the upcoming local elections.
A report by the Mesopotamia News Agency said there has been reports of wide-scale location shifting in the other south-eastern Kurdish-majority cities of Siirt and Sirnak.
According to a report published by the critical news portal, Evrenseldaily, this figure is a little bit more than the vote gap between the ruling AKP and HDP, looking at the latest parliamentary elections of 2018, where HDP took 9104 of the votes and AKP 6075.
Turkey’s ruling AKP also steals voters
Pervin Buldan warned Turkish citizens twenty days ago about falling under the darkness of fascism if they continue to fail to unite.
The co-chairman of HDP was speaking the party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
Buldan criticised AKP for targeting and arresting HDP leaders, former co-leaders of HDP Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtaş. Both of them are behind bars now.
She said this year will also be a year of struggle, as was the case last year.
Buldan said: “Despite the dark period we are experiencing, no one should be pessimistic. People from seven years old to 70 years old are screaming for justice. Every darkness will be followed by brightness,” Buldan said. Buldan heeded how her life was in danger.
Buldan said the HDP will punish AKP at the ballot box in the Kurdish region. “AKP manipulates voter registration and they think they will win the election by playing with voter records. Now they are stealing voters. They are refusing to accept citizens’ free will.”
Turkey’s local elections 2019: How HDP to determine its candidates in 3 big cities
The post HDP readies for elections and is more determined to fight for a free and fair poll appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/01/25/hdp-readies-for-elections-and-is-more-determined-to-fight-for-a-free-and-fair-poll/
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