Turkey’s top election authority has rejected an extraordinary appeal by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) demanding a re-run of local elections in five districts where party’s mayor-elects were not allowed to take up office.
The Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on Thursday rejected by a majority of votes the appeal submitted by HDP that demands a repeat of local elections in five districts where mayoral mandates were given to the runner-up candidates instead of the HDP mayor-elects.
YSK ruled last week that mayoral mandates will not be handed over to the mayor-elects who were previously sacked from their public sector jobs by state-of-emergency decrees.
Five HDP mayor-elects were not able to take office after the March 31 local polls due to the ruling of the YSK, which came under harsh criticism from opposition parties claiming the ruling was unlawful.
A number of legal experts and opposition figures pointed out that the candidates, who were sacked from the public sector through the decrees had already been allowed to run in the polls, even though the YSK was aware of their dismissal status while they were applying for candidacy.
The pro-Kurdish HDP filed an extraordinary objection to YSK following the ruling and demanded a re-run of the election in the five districts where party’s mayor-elects were not able to receive their official mandates.
The party stated in the rejected appeal that YSK failed to fulfill its constitutional duty to hold elections under safe and equal conditions, adding that it gave a ruling that has no legal basis.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), described the ruling as a “shame for democracy” on Thursday, during a meeting with Ankara representatives of news channels and dailies.
“You need to give the official mandates to those who won the elections. Otherwise, we would be a part of shame for democracy as a society. Refusing to deliver the mandates to the people you previously allowed to run for elections after their wins is an act that defies the rule of law,” said Kılıçdaroğlu addressing the election authority.
Izzet Ozgenc, a criminal law professor and one of the founders of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), held forth that the decision given by members of the YSK would lead to disputes over judicial independence in Turkey.
“Without being proven guilty of a certain crime, being dismissed from a public sector job through an administrative decision or even decrees [issued by the government] does not abolish [the fact that one meets] the eligibility requirements,” Ozgenc underlined.
The state-of-emergency decrees that led to the controversial YSK ruling were issued by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) as part of a wide-spread purge in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.
The Kurdish political movement has been under an increasing crackdown by Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP government since then. The ruling AKP has dismissed 95 HDP mayor-elects serving in predominantly Kurdish-populated cities and gave their offices to appointed trustees.
Renowned law expert calls on election authority to rule within the law
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from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/04/19/election-authority-rejects-pro-kurdish-hdps-re-run-demand-in-five-districts/
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