Manipulation, violence, and threats during the elections in Turkey

Elections have started in Turkey and voter fraud, voting inconsistencies, and violence were increasingly reported to have occurred across the country.

While all party leaders have already voted at various polling stations, the elections will continue until the evening.

Mass stamps for Erdogan – mass brawl over different candidates

Amidst the ongoing elections, the city of Sanliurfa in Southeastern Turkey has evolved into one of the centers of incidents of violence and menaces. Several cases were reported in Sanliurfa where masses of ballot papers for the ruling AKP and Erdogan were stamped by one person. In the village of Minare, Harran County, a person was seen stamping multiple ballot papers in a row. Before that, according to Oguz Kaan Salici, a former CHP MP and current functionary at the party headquarters, the opposition election observers were also beaten. Another video shows a person stamping several ballot papers while saying ‘Rais’, in reference to Erdogan, which means ‘chief/leader’.

In the district of Akcakale in Sanliurfa, a mass brawl broke out between two extended families due to differences of opinion about the candidates, which took a long time to settle down with great difficulty.

 

 

 

Menaces and double voting by MHP officials

In Konya, Meram County, Turkish Communist Party (TKP) election observers were approached and threatened by members of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the far-right coalition partner of the ruling AKP, after they tried to tell the MHP Konya candidate and his followers that, according to the law, those voters with party emblems were not allowed to enter polling stations. The police, which were present during the incident, did not intervene on behalf of the attacked election observers, so other citizens had to end the dispute. The group around the MHP candidate will visit all polling stations in the same district with their emblems.

In Mersin, in Southern Turkey, Celal Kadim, MHP district chairman in Gülnar, was caught voting at various ballot boxes. At a ballot box, he managed to vote, using an old voter’s letter, but was later caught when his name didn’t appear on the electoral roll. The case was recorded and Kadim then voted again at another polling station.

 

https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/siyaset/mhp-ilce-baskani-2-sandikta-oy-kullanirken-yakalandi-2081244

 

https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/siyaset/konyada-usulsuzluge-mudahale-eden-tkp-musahitlerine-saldiri-girisimi-2081242

 

Election observer beaten up after AKP candidate tried to vote multiple times

In Mardin, in Southeastern Turkey, an election observer from the Green Left Party (Yeşil Sol Parti, YSP) was beaten up while attempting to record a case of election fraud, namely, multiple voting, perpetrated by AKP candidate Faruk Kilic and his relatives. The election observer had to be treated in hospital after suffering serious wounds from the assaults.

 

 

Election workers pretend to help and vote for the AKP

In İstanbul, poll workers helped an elderly woman who reportedly wanted to vote for the CHP to the polling booth, but then stamped the woman’s vote at the AKP. The case was then recorded and the ballot box chairman was arrested, according to Canan Kaftancioglu, the head of the Istanbul CHP. In addition, an election observer from the Workers’ Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi, TİP) was beaten by AKP election observers at a polling station in İstanbul after he tried to record how they were going to the polling booths with the voters. The attacked election observer suffered injuries from the attack.

 

 

Invalid votes stamped through poll workers

In Çankaya near Ankara, election workers stamped ballot papers more than one in order to “try out the stamps,” according to their own statements. The voters confronted the poll workers because their votes will now be invalid and demanded new ballots from the polling officials, however, they would not hand them over.

 

 

 

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