HDP files petition for electoral security as CHP rules out delay of snap polls

ANKARA

Kurdish problem-focused Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has filed a petition to Turkey's top election body regarding electoral security, as Republican People's Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu dismissed claims of postponement of the early elections scheduled for Nov. 1.

After its co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş said conditions to hold early elections in Turkey's eastern parts were unsuitable due to rising violence and the interim government may think of delaying the polls, the HDP applied the Supreme Election Board (YSK) on Sept. 5.

"If armed forces would be present near ballot boxes under the pretext of providing electoral security, like it had happened during the military rule era, it would surely not create a perception that voting was completed freely. We hope that the YSK would display the necessary sensitivity about the issue, developing a decisive stance to prevent such acts," the application said.

CHP chairman Kılıçdaroğlu, on the other hand, ruled out any delay. "It is not right even to talk about delaying the elections. It means disbelief in democracy," he told journalists on Sept. 5 as he left an event held by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations for the opening of the new judicial year.
      
He stressed that the decision to hold elections had already been taken.
      
"We do not want any delay. The elections must be held with the security of the polls ensured," he added.
      
Asked about an purported offer by the Justice and Developmenet Party (AKP) to put surveillance cameras in polling areas, the CHP leader said all ballot boxes could be protected with cameras and that his party would have no objection to such a practice.

The HDP supported the offer in its application to the YSK on Sept. 5.
      
Snap elections in Turkey will be held on Nov. 1, nearly five months after an inconclusive election on June 7 saw no party win an overall majority.
      
A provisional government was established by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on Aug. 28 to steer Turkey to a rerun of June's polls.