Turkey's main opposition alarmed over lack of electoral security

“If we, the YSK [the Supreme Election Board] in the first place, do not actively work for preventing election fraud, no matter what you do with fingers, either marking them with election ink or applying henna on them, the election is at risk. That’s why we should all together take security measures,” Bülent Tezcan, deputy chair of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said at a press conference on June 2.

Tezcan’s remarks came when a reporter recalled an election ink that was used in the past and asked for a comment.

According to Tezcan, citizens’ wanting to return to using election ink is full of significance.

“Finger paint is not a practice which is sufficient to provide election safety on its own. But today, if we are talking about finger paint again, this is a very striking expression and confession of our inability to have an election safety conversation,” said Tezcan.

At the time when election ink was being used, people called it an outdated practice, Tezcan said.

“That’s why we gave up this practice. At that time, we believed that elections were 80 percent safe. That’s why it would be an embarrassing practice now. Now, if citizens again find a solution in a practice which they once called primitive, then the YSK, which pauperized this, should learn a lesson,” he added.