Old pretexts for moving ballot boxes

Reference was made to acts of terrorism that took place nearly 25 years ago in the justification for certain applications made by provincial governates and provincial election boards for the Supreme Election Council (SEC) to pass a ballot box combination resolution involving 144,000 voters in nineteen provinces. The priority given to security reasons in the applications for the combining of ballot boxes on 24 June for many villages in which this procedure was not conducted on 1 November and in the 16 April referendum also contradicts the AKP ruling party’s rhetoric that terrorism has ended. It was also noticeable that, even though the number of voters in some villages exceeds 300, low population was cited as one of the reasons for moving ballot boxes.

Most recent event in application was in 1997

With it stated in an application made to the SEC that in Kocaçavuş village situated in Siirt there was a kidnapping on 21 May 1995 and an armed clash on 10 August 1997 and one security official lost his life in an armed clash that took place on 22 September 1997, it is said, “It will be appropriate for ballot box combination to be carried out to ensure electoral security on the grounds that hand-made explosives may be laid and actions of an assault and sabotage nature may be carried out by members of the separatist terrorist organisation in the constituency and along the routes of roads.” The SEC approved the said ballot box combination application. In an application for combining the ballot box of Tosuntarla village in Siirt, in turn, reference was made to an act of terrorism that took place in 1993 The SEC, however, dismissed the said application for the combining of ballot boxes.

Moved to pro-AKP villages

HDP sources have concluded that many villages in which the party polls well are being moved to villages in which the AKP vote is high. Such that the voters in Suluca village attached to Muş where the HDP took 94% of the vote have been moved to Arpayazı village attached to Muş where the AKP took 75% of the vote.

Terrorism had purportedly ended

The priority given to security reasons in the applications for the combining of ballot boxes also contradicts the AKP government’s rhetoric over the past year that terrorism has ended.

Government officials have pronounced that terrorism has ended especially in the state of emergency period. Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu said in a speech he made on 21 March 2018 before the calling of the early election, “We must finally end this business and rid our eastern and south-eastern provinces of their association with terrorism. Believe me, the fight against terrorism has never been so strong in Turkey and I want you to know that its end is nigh.” Soylu said to opposition party leaders in a speech he made the day before yesterday, “What’s riling you? Is the calm in the East and South East riling you? Those people walk the streets in the East and South East until two or three in the morning. Sixteen-year-old girls are not dragged away from beneath their mothers’ knees to the mountain and made into terrorists. Is this riling you Akşener? Is this riling you Erbakan’s party? Is this riling you Muharrem İnce?”

“Terrorism is no longer on the agenda”

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, addressing citizens at a rally in Siirt yesterday, recalling that he had said on becoming Prime Minister on 26 May 2016 that they would remove terrorism and the separatist terrorist organisation from the agenda, stated the following, “Praise be to God, terrorism is no longer on Turkey’s and Siirt’s agenda. We have done whatever was called for to this end and will do more. They can no longer deceive your kids and take them to the mountains, and won’t be able to.”

However, there has been puzzlement over the priority given to security reasons in the applications for the combining of ballot boxes affecting some 145,000 voters in nineteen provinces following the calling of early elections. Additionally, with ballot boxes not moved in the villages in question even in the election held on 1 November 2015 when acts of terrorism peaked, the citing of security as the justification in the 24 June elections strikes a discordant note.

“Concrete reasons not cited”

Erhan Çiftçi, Nilgün Hacımahmutoğlu and Yunus Aykın did not concur with the SEC’s ballot box combination resolution, voted against it and entered a dissenting opinion. The dissenting opinion read, “Examination of the applications for the moving of ballot boxes and the combining of ballot boxes reveals that ballot boxes were set up and elections held in the said locations in the 1 November 2015 general elections and the 16 April 2017 referendum. It must be considered that resolving to move or combine ballot boxes on this occasion with abstract grounds having been adduced by the administration in the absence of any concrete electoral security reasons relating to these locations having been cited may fundamentally bar the exercise of the right in view of the number of voters pertaining to these locations and the distance of the place to which the move will be ordered. For these reasons, we do not concur with the esteemed majority’s view that the ballot boxes be moved and combined given the failure for specific reasons to be adduced that would justify ballot boxes not being set up on this occasion at locations where ballot boxes were set up in the 1 November 2015 general elections and the 16 April 2017 referendum.”

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