Turkish people began voting on Sunday amid claims of frauds in presidential and parliamentary elections that pose the biggest challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) since they swept to power more than a decade and a half ago.
Voting has begun at 08:00 Sunday morning across Turkey where 56,322,632 voters are called to the polls today for the presidential and parliamentary elections. A total of 180 thousand 65 polling stations were set up in 81 provinces. Voting will last until 17:00.
As citizens started to vote in the early morning, a man named Cengiz Keleş and another unidentified man were seen moving about in the Mesut Yılmaz Elementary School in Diyarbakır with empty voting envelopes in their hands. The men were caught by the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) witnesses and handed over to the police.
CHP ballot witness Doğan Hatun said that “As I was going through the classrooms where ballot boxes stationed, I saw a man with empty YSK envelopes in his hands. I saw him going from classroom to classroom distributing these envelopes, even though we didn’t have any missing envelopes. We tried to stop him. He said they were put on duty ‘by the judge.’ We told him that we spoke with the judges too, and that there is no such practice. Then they tried to run, but we caught them and handed them over to the police. The man whose last name was Keleş threatened me. We stopped them as they were trying to steal votes. All friends at the ballots should be aware in case something like this happens in other schools.”
Protested by voters and ballot officers, Keleş and the other man were escorted out of the school by the police. HDP Diyarbakır parliamentary candidate Garo Paylan, DBP Diyarbakır Co-chair İbrahim Çiçek and HDP Diyarbakır Co-chair Filiz Buluttekin went to the school to monitor the developments.
Pro-Kurdish Fırat news agency (ANF), has also reported that some 40 HDP witnesses were removed from ballots boxes by force in Şanlıurfa province. Ana also, women were not reportedly allowed to vote at the ballot box no: 2044 in the Bulduk village of Şanlıurfa’s Eyyubiye district. Men voted in their place and women were prohibited from voting in the ballot box no.1196 in Şanlıurfa’s Geçit village.
Moreover, it was reported that votes were cast en masse in the ballots box No. 1043 and 1044 in the Gap Anadolu High School in Suruç district of Şanlıurfa. Opposition party witnesses were denied access to the voting area for ballot boxes no. 2179, 2180 and 2181 in the Karaali village in Şanlıurfa’s Eyyubiye district.
Village guards in Koçkar village in Diyarbakır’s Kulp district blocked the road to the village and prevented the HDP’s witnesses from entering the village. The HDP members cannot be reached by their phones right now and nobody has heard from them since.
It was also claimed that in the Adak village in Derik district of Mardin province with 204 voters, the village headman threatened people to vote out in the open. The headman threatened ballot officers and the HDP district chair when they objected.
Some witnesses were also reportedly not allowed into schools in Van province.
A ballot box officer allowed two people to vote in the ballot box No.2425 in Sokullu Mehmet Pasa Anadolu High School in Çankaya district of Ankara province, claiming that they were on the list when they weren’t.
The elections will also usher in a powerful new executive presidency long sought by Erdoğan and backed by a small majority of Turks in a 2017 referendum. Critics say it will further erode democracy in the NATO member state and entrench one-man rule.
The post Turkey votes in presidential and parliamentary elections amid fraud claims appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/turkey-votes-in-presidential-and-parliamentary-elections-amid-fraud-claims/
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