We will not let a single vote be stolen

With days left until the presidential and parliamentary elections slated for 24 June, as in every election period, a single question occupies the minds of the electorate: “How reliable are the election results?” The CHP, HDP, Good Party and Felicity Party have come together and formed a “Fair Election Platform” to ensure that the results correctly reflect the votes exiting the ballot boxes. CHP Deputy General Chair Onursal Adıgüzel, has compared this platform formed by political parties and civil society organisations to a “gigantic calculator.” Adıgüzel, explaining how the results will be taken from each ballot box with the aid of volunteers and these results will be collated at a headquarters and this data compared with the base vote, says, “The moment it starts functioning like a gigantic calculator, we will have precluded any questionable business. We have set up a “Fair Election Application” for smartphones. Those serving at ballot boxes will be able to reach the call centre at a single keystroke. They will be able to send us the results emanating from each ballot box at a single keystroke.”

 Analysis of the past

 Adıgüzel explained that they as a party had appealed to party organisations in January and had created a pool relating to electoral integrity from that date until now. Noting that, when the snap election decision was taken, they had discussed what could be done to ensure electoral integrity with the aid of trained people serving at ballot boxes, Adıgüzel pointed out that the CHP had a technological infrastructure relating to electoral integrity that it had activated at the previous elections. Adıgüzel said, “We made analyses of what happened in past election periods. We also recorded the results of these elections in a digital environment. We began to make checks step by step. We saw that other political parties were also making studies of this kind. We spoke to the teams that conducted the studies for the political parties forming the Nation Alliance. We combined forces.”

 “We will be at every ballot box”

 Saying that not a single vote, even the AKP’s or HDP’s should go elsewhere, Adıgüzel pointed out that to this end representatives of the parties forming the Nation Alliance had come together with many civil society organisations such as the Confederation of Public Employees' Trade Unions, Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions and the United June Movement and said, “At least two people will be assigned to each ballot box by the Fair Election Platform. There are a total of 180,067 ballot boxes throughout Turkey excluding prison and mobile ballot boxes. Everyone will protect each vote at each ballot box. It is precisely when nobody is serving at ballot boxes that votes are tampered with. One party may have its vote inflated. In the constitutional referendum, not a single “No” vote emerged from 250 ballot boxes in Şanlıurfa. It emerged that far more votes were cast than the number of voters. To counter this and similar situations, we will now assign at least two people to each ballot box. We will compare one another’s lists.” Noting that each person serving at ballot boxes will take a record of the wet tallies, Adıgüzel, recalling the elections in which Mansur Yavaş stood as the CHP’s candidate for Ankara Metropolitan Mayor, said the following:

 “In those days there were no tallies taken from each ballot box. There were questionable points. In these elections, so that not a single question remains in citizens’ minds, we have created a system whereby we will get the result from each ballot box. We will collate the results obtained from each ballot box. Like a gigantic calculator. When these results are compared to the base vote, we will have precluded any questionable business.”

 INSPECTOR: ALL SMART PHONES

 Explaining that all infrastructures will be combined and results will be compared on reaching headquarters with the application that has been created, Adıgüzel said, “Let us say that on the election day a person assigned by the CHP sick. A person assigned by the Good Party or SP will attend at the ballot box in their place. In this way, we plan to ensure ballot box integrity. Sometimes they try to keep voters away from the ballot box. So, above all, it is essential that everyone votes. We are having discussions with the bar association, too. Lawyers will also be active in the regions and will establish speedy communications with the assigned people. The assigned people will send us the photographs they have taken with smart phones by means of the “Fair Election Application” and we will also go public with the results reaching us to circumvent media manipulation.”

 ‘Devasa bir hesap makinesi’ kurduk'