Turkish Local Elections Strong Suspicion of Rigging

[u1m2]

AKP, the ruling party, conservative and religious, was expected to win most of the major cities in local elections prior to election day (Sunday 29). However when we watched the election specials on many different channels as more and more boxes from the two major cities (Ankara and Istanbul) opened and the votes were counted it showed that the race was gong to be a very close one between AKP and CHP. As is the case with most elections in Turkey, most of the conservative voters cast their ballots early in the morning since they wake up early each day for prayer, even on sundays. At one point almost 50% of all the votes were counted in major citites and the 2-3% gap was closing by the hour.

 

Then this happened. The electronic infrastructure of the supreme election committee (YSK in Turkish) collapsed. Data input from local centers were halted. Power outages in Ankara and Istanbul where ballots were continuing to be counted struck these cities one after another. The municipalities of these two cities both belong to AKP, and the power companies, though private businesses on paper are closely tied with the municipalities. Many reports of stolen ballot boxes were given. Some contradictory data occured and was later removed on the YSK servers. Normally three obververs from each party are to be present when the boxes are opened and ballots are counted by all party representatives but the power outage has caused many boxes to be unattended. In Ankara where I live, most outages occured in districts that are pro CHP historically.

 

This is seriously frightening as I feel this country is moving more and more towards fascism. This sort of {censored} is happening all the time as just recently a 14 year old teenager has filed a lawsuit claiming he was dragged into the bus of the prime minister after shouting insults because his father was laid off recently. He had bruises on his body and he specifically testified that the prime minister has violently grabbed his neck and pushed him to the ground. This is just an indication of how the prime minister reacts to criticism, even when it comes from a 14 year old. Another man who was previously questioned by the police for verbally disagreeing with the prime minister when he was on an election tour a couple years ago was detained in his home for a day when the pm visited the same city for his election tour this year. The poor guy and his mother were insulted by the pm two years before and now he is detained by the police even when it was him who really got insulted and dissed by the pm initially.

 

I am asking anyone on these boards to take all news on turkey in the international media with a grain of salt. US is very supportive of AKP and played an important role in their rise to power. Most media in the US reflects AKP's rule as very democratic and generally in a very good light. Believe me this is not the case. They are crushing the opposition with every means including tapping phones, using media networks that they have sold to businessman connected with the AKP after these networks were nationalized for their debts. The corporation who bought ATV, a major network in Turkey, used credit from state owned bank to the amount of nearly a billion dollars. Other businessman have confessed to being threatened by the prime minister so they would not enter the bidding process. A huge lawsuit was launched in which many critics of the AKP rule were arrested of being involved in a conspiracy that aimed at a military coup. tons of documents like voice files etc. were leaked to the pro AKP media that showed the detained members of opposition in a bad light. Their personal lives were made a part of the investigation, they were detained for months and months without officially being charged and the wickedness goes on and on...

The list of the detained includes journalists, union leaders, members of left wing ngo's and even a police chief that has disclosed a pro-islamist framework within the police force. They have just installed a digital infrastructure which allows ministry of justice to follow each and every case in court instantly which gives them direct power over judicial matters and is a huge blow to judicial system of turkey. Each judge is now under surveillance with the click of a button.

 

As I said before please keep an eye on us. It is becoming more and more obvious that Turkey is being dragged in to a mild islamic rule and our secular structure is under threat. We are a nation built on principle that religion should stay out of politics but unfortunately since the US backed coup of 1980, with strong and determined social engineering the nation has become more conservative and religious like the generals ordered religion classes to be mandatory and the government funded many religious schools in that era. It was clear they wanted Turkey on the green belt and used religion as means to fight communism. Now, US wants Turkey to be a mild islamist country because they feel it is the model all countries should follow in the middle east. Mild islam is the antidote to radical islam according to some idiots in Washington or CIA, I suppose. They probably also think that such nations are also easier to rule, pro-US governments would be easier to sustain and would bring more stability to the region in which radical islam is seen as the ultimate threat against stability.

[u1m2]

some updates on the issue

 

Supreme Election Committee has accepted AKP's demands on recounting votes in one district of İstanbul, while denying CHP's demands in another district. Way to go on being impartial. This commission whose sole purpose is to make sure elections are fair have done a terrible job since the beginning of the campaign process. AKP has been allowed to use government funds and resources during the election process, all objections regarding this matter has been ignored by this crappy institution.

 

Even have one first hand information on this issue now. On the night of the election, my cousins were touring with their car around the block to look out for such potential mischief since the last election wasn't particularly clean either. They have caught one guy with a bag full of ballots, turned him over to the police. They went to the station the next day to check on the situation and the police denied ever capturing or charging such a guy. Perhaps they were lucky that the police didn't arrest them instead. Other reports similar are being exposed in the press the past few days. Another form of fascism has been invented and unfortunately it has all the international support it can ask for.