Leaked footage suggests potential voting fraud in Siverek (Girê Sor), Urfa (Riha), where the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a slim victory in Sunday’s local elections by just 64 votes against the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party.
Journalist Barış Terkoğlu shared footage from a polling station in the Taşıkara-Duydum village, capturing a moment that has added to the reports on the AKP government’s several election misconducts. The video shows a man stamping ballots in bulk, with a voice in the background cautioning against marking one of the votes due to the supposed voter being incarcerated.
The dialogue captured in the footage, “Brother, don’t stamp them all, one of them is in jail, that’s what they said,” followed by mentions of a voter, Mustafa Kılıç, purportedly behind bars, raises serious questions about the authenticity of the vote count and the presence of unlawful practices.
This incident contributes to a pattern observed across Kurdish-majority regions, involving lines of young men at polling stations, who are potentially security personnel, a scenario the DEM Party had previously warned might indicate voter transportation. It not only raises questions about potential electoral fraud in Siverek but also undermines the legitimacy of the narrow margin by which the AKP claimed victory in the district.