Bar associations in 15 Kurdish-majority provinces of Turkey called on the Supreme Election Council (YSK) to reverse district election boards’ decisions to renew elections in several cities.
If YSK confirms the board’s decisions, the local elections will be renewed on 2 June in at least two districts where Pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM)Party won and another two where the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were victorious.
The districts in question are Halfeti and Hilvan in the Kurdish-majority province of Urfa (Riha), Pinarbasi in the central province of Kayseri, and Urgup in the central province of Nevsehir.
The bar associations noted in a statement that the decision to renew the election in Hilvan was taken due to evidence that two bags of votes were destroyed by the relatives of the losing candidate.
They said:
“If the Supreme Election Council confirms the decision, this will mean that in the future the losing party may have the election renewed by simply destroying some of the votes.”
Stressing that renewing elections in such cases will go against the people’s will, the bar associations urged YSK to confirm renewal only when there is no other option.
In the history of elections in Turkey, the local elections held on Sunday are the first to see such wide spread demand for vote renewals.