Hundreds submit individual applications to Turkey’s election board to annul referendum

ANKARA

HÜRRİYET photo

Hundreds of citizens on April 18 lined up in front of the headquarters of the Supreme Election Board (YSK) in Ankara to submit individual applications for the annulment of the April 16 referendum on shifting to an executive presidential system, saying the counting of unstamped ballot papers and envelopes openly violated the law.

Riot police took security measures outside the YSK headquarters as scores of citizens began to line up to submit their petitions. 

Police initially allowed the passing of citizens in small groups from the security corridor to the building. However, YSK officials were then only able to accept other petitions on a desk set up in the garden of the building due to a stampede.

The individual applications noted that the validity of unstamped ballot papers and envelopes was against electoral law, demanding the cancelation of the referendum that resulted in a narrrow win for the government.