CHP awaits election board's decision on Istanbul

ANKARA

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has called on the Supreme Election Board (YSK) not to bow to pressure from the national government to redo the Istanbul municipal elections.

The elections watchdog is expected to announce a decision in the coming days on a request by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its main ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to invalidate Istanbul’s municipal election results from March 31 due to alleged irregularities and hold a new election.

“The compass of the YSK is about election legislation and case law. If this compass deviates, it will be Turkey and our democracy which will pay the price. YSK would not handle this burden. The Council should not bow to pressures and should not be used as a tool in a crime of law,” officials with the CHP’s Party Assembly stated in a communiqué on April 28.

The Party Assembly convened under the leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to discuss the results of the local elections and a recent attack against him by a nationalist mob.

CHP’s Ekrem İmamoğlu won Istanbul against the AKP’s Binali Yıldırım, ending 25 years’ rule by AKP and its predecessors in Turkey’s largest metropolis.

“Our mayors have received their credentials, but the appeal process is still going on although 28 days have passed since polls. This is not very common in our history of democracy,” said CHP.

The main opposition party has condemned the assault against Kılıçdaroğlu, describing it as a lynch attempt aimed at sparking turmoil and instability in Turkey.

“The efforts by the government to underestimate this attack and to describe it as a routine protest are not innocent. They reflect the haste of the guilty. Those who try to depict this lynch attempt as a reasonable move and to legitimize it are parts of this lynch attempt,” the CHP alleged.

Need for a new consensus

The communiqué suggested that Turkey has been speedily polarized and divided in recent years as a result of the new governance system reducing the powers of the Turkish Parliament.

“What we have experienced since June 24 – and the elections underlined - is the need for a new consensus that would provide rule of law, separation of powers and check and balances,” the communiqué stated.