CHP accuses Anadolu Agency of ‘manipulating’ initial election results
ANKARA
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has accused state-run Anadolu Agency of deliberately creating misperceptions about the course of the election results, adding that the CHP’s tally has President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s vote for the presidency at around 48 percent - far lower than the agency’s current reporting.
“According to our information, with five percent of ballot boxes opened, our candidate’s vote is 40,35 percent while Erdoğan’s vote is 46 percent,” CHP spokesman Bülent Tezcan said at a press conference late on June 24 as votes were still being counted.
Tezcan said Anadolu Agency was deliberately manipulating the flow of information on election results by claiming that Erdoğan’s votes were at 59.8 percent with 20 percent of votes counted.
As of 7.30 p.m. local time with 39 percent of ballot boxes opened, Anadolu Agency was reporting that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was leading the presidential race with 57.1 percent of the votes, while the CHP’s nominee Muharrem İnce followed him with 28.2 percent.
“We are following the manipulations carried out by Anadolu Agency minute by minute. We will never leave the ballot boxes unattended,” Tezcan vowed.
Balloting at customs gates also began on June 7 and will continue through the Election Day when 30,000 Syrian nationals in Turkey, too, are eligible to vote.
CHP's candidate calls for guarding of ballot boxes
"Currently the Supreme Electoral Board's [YSK] system shows that votes in 37 percent of ballot boxes have been counted so far. But Anadolu Agency data cited on TV station claims that 85 percent of them have been counted," CHP's presidential candidate Muharrem İnce said, calling on ballot box officials and supporters not to leave polling stations.
Alternative vote-counting platform denies data reported in mediaThe “Fair Election Platform,” an alternative platform to count, validate and announce the number of votes to the public on June 24 election day, has rejected the data provided by the media as ballots are counted.
“The data provided on television screens do not in any way reflect the truth,” the platform said in a Twitter post on 9:26 p.m.
“Votes are still being counted in several metropolitans and in southeastern provinces,” the group said.
The “Fair Election Platform” includes the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the İYİ (Good) Party and the Felicity Party, which together form the opposition Nation Alliance, as well as the Kurdish issue-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
NGOs, including labor unions DİSK and KESK, have also joined the platform.
The platform’s spokesperson, Nesteren Davutoğlu, said during a press conference in Istanbul on June 21 that they mobilized 415,000 ballot box committee members and 195,000 witnesses and volunteers, claiming they would guarantee that “99.9 percent of votes would be counted correctly” on election day.