The Turkish government has been accused by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party of manipulating voter registrations for nearly 54,000 people in Kurdish-majority cities ahead of local elections, a revelation made during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday.
The party’s legal and human rights co-spokeswoman Sevda Çelik Özbingöl and Ankara co-mayoral candidate Öztürk Türkdoğan detailed extensive voter manipulation strategies employed by the Turkish government predominantly affecting cities with Kurdish majorities.
“Persistent issues with irregular voter registration continue to plague our electoral process,” declared Türkdoğan, shedding light on the deliberate relocation of approximately 54,000 voters to various Kurdish-majority regions. This calculated movement of people, a significant portion of whom are security personnel, who by their very nature have a tendency to nationalism, raises critical questions about the intent and implications of such actions on democratic practices, according to the DEM Party officials.
The press conference highlighted disturbing numbers of voter transfers across numerous cities, including but not limited to 4,600 transferred to Ağrı (Agiri), 708 to Tatvan in Bitlis (Bedlis) and 8,287 to Şırnak (Şirnex), among others. The emphasis on security personnel among the transferred voters stands out in particular, suggesting a potential strategic manipulation aiming at influencing election outcomes in these crucial areas.
This revelation by the DEM Party is the latest in a series of documented allegations by the pro-Kurdish party, and highlights increasing concerns regarding election integrity and the lengths to which governmental bodies might go to sway results in their favour.
