Preliminary election results announced with objections from parties

ANKARA

DHA Photo

Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK) announced June 9 the temporary results of the June 7 general elections, but the exact number of deputies that will represent the four parties at the parliament remains uncertain, mainly due to ongoing objections in at least four places. 

Voter turnout reached 84 percent, according to the official announcement, as 47.5 million out of 56.6 million registered citizens cast their votes. Nearly 1.35 million of the votes, however, were invalid.

In accordance, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) netted more than 18.86 million votes, 40.87 percent of the total, as the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won 24.96 percent with 11.6 million votes.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) got 7.6 million votes, or 18.29 percent, which was above the 6 million votes or 13.12 percent by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). But the latter has caught the nationalist party in parliament members, which is linked to the quotas of the country’s 81 provinces.

Along with objections to the vote count, the votes abroad, a first for Turkey’s general election, has also made calculations rather complicated, as this new input was proportionally distributed to all provinces. 

Several independent deputies from Istanbul filed objections to the election results in the city, claiming that the ballots were confusing to voters.

Ersan Gökgöz and Levent Sekban who were independent candidates for Istanbul 1st region parliamentary seats, applied to the YSK to cancel the elections for the city. 

They said in their objection that many voters had put their seal on both a party and an independent deputy, due to the confusing design of the ballot papers. More than 500,000 votes in Istanbul were invalid. 

In Black Sea province of Samsun, the AKP provincial branch has applied to the YSK over the results. AKP Samsun provincial head Muharrem Göksel said they have made objections to the YSK and expect to get six deputies if they can receive 408 votes after their objections. 

He said they have applied in all districts for a recounting of the invalid votes. 

In Giresun, another Black Sea province, the ruling AKP also applied to the YSK to recount the votes.

In Eastern province of Iğdır, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) also objected to the election results on the grounds that invalid votes were cast.