As local elections loom, the Turkish Supreme Electoral Council has issued a ruling to move 115 ballot boxes away from the rural areas in the Kurdish-majority provinces of Agri and Mus, in the east of Turkey, in a bid to secure “election safety.”
This ruling appears to be an attempt to prevent possible interference from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish government has accused of intimidating the Kurdish population to force them to vote in favor of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in the rural areas.
The Electoral Council’s decision is likely to affect voters in the region due to the widespread poverty in the eastern rural area of Turkey. Moving the ballot boxes to the city centers could deter those who can’t afford travel expenses from voting.
There has been ongoing controversy around fraud allegations from opposition parties since the Supreme Electoral Council released the voter lists in January.
The opposition MPs claimed that the government was registering “imaginary voters” and adding them to voter lists to generate more votes for the mayoral candidates of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Some electoral districts saw a multifold rise in the number of registered voters compared to the 2018 general elections, one of these districts being the Yukariyayla village of Eastern Black Sea city of Gumushane where the voter numbers increased by 761 %.
Elections loom amid accusations of unrealistic rise of voters in favour of AKP
The post Turkish Supreme Electoral Council shifts location of 115 ballot boxes for “election safety” appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/03/08/turkish-supreme-electoral-council-shifts-location-of-115-ballot-boxes-for-election-safety/
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