Ruling party bias in ballot box appointments

With a fortnight left until the 24 June elections, a highly controversial development affecting ballot box committees has taken place. Deletions were made on the list sent to the Sub-Province Election Board from schools for ballot box committees in Istanbul Bağcılar. With Education and Science Workers' Union-member teachers excluded from the list, the hundreds of ballot box chairs in unit 113 consist entirely of teachers who are members of the Educators Trade Union, known for its closeness to the government. It has been learnt that a similar state of affairs prevails in many cities, especially Ankara and Diyarbakır. The CHP has brought the scandal that ensued in Bağcılar before the Sub-Province Election Board and called on ballot box committees to be reappointed. Education and Science Workers' Union Istanbul No 1 Branch Secretary İsmail Demir, saying that he has worked at the same place for 26 years, expressed his reaction saying, “What needed to happen by rights was for the list that school heads sent to Bağcılar Sub-Province Election Board to be implemented. With Education and Science Workers' Union-member teachers being blackballed, Educators Trade Union members have been appointed. There is a way of going about things that suggests they are spiriting the ballot boxes away from certain people.” Ankara No 1 Branch Organisation Secretary Levent Abbas Varol, in turn, commented on the lists saying, “Other teachers who do not live in places close to our schools are being appointed from distant areas.”

 Summoned from maternity leave

 In Istanbul Bağcılar, Education and Science Workers' Union-member teachers applied to school heads to serve in the 24 June elections. The lists they compiled for Bağcılar Sub-Province Directorate of National Education were sent to Bağcılar Sub-Province Election Board. With Education and Science Workers' Union-member teachers on the list being deleted, Educators Trade Union members were entered in their place. With the proclamation on 5 June of the Bağcılar Sub-Province Election Board’s list of ballot box chairs, the ensuing scandal became plain for all to see. It has emerged that in unit 113 affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, not a single Education and Science Workers' Union-member teacher had been appointed ballot box chair. It was notable that teachers who were on maternity leave, on military service, had been transferred to another city or had even been dismissed from the profession were appointed as ballot box chairs on the Sub-Province Election Board’s list.

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